Summary

Gruber revisits Tim Cook's 2014 open letter on privacy, which declared Apple's business model was selling products — not advertising — and that only a tiny portion served advertisers. He argues Apple has since slid down a slippery slope: App Store search results are now visually dominated by paid ads (including casino promotions), Apple News carries bizarre AI-generated ads, and Maps ads are imminent. While Gruber concedes Apple's ad systems are genuinely privacy-preserving by design, he argues the public cannot know or believe this — seeing ads in a maps app triggers the assumption of being tracked, regardless of technical reality. He concludes that Apple's new CEO John Ternus should course-correct by abandoning these ad businesses, because the trust gained would far outweigh the revenue lost, and would restore Apple's unique, credible claim to be the one Big Tech company that doesn't betray its users.

Key Insight

Apple's ads may be technically privacy-respecting, but the only way to maintain a credible privacy reputation with the general public is not to show ads at all — the reputational cost of expanding into advertising dwarfs its revenue contribution.

Spicy Quotes (click to share)

• 7

  Seeing is believing, and when people see ads in their maps app, they believe they're being tracked.

• 8

  What gave Tim Cook's privacy letter heft in 2014 wasn't just the clarity of its plain language, but the fact that you didn't have to take his word for it that the ads Apple showed you respected your privacy, because Apple didn't show you ads in 2014.

• 7

  The only way they can prove to most people that they're not betraying the privacy of their location data or app usage is not to sell such ads in the first place.

• 5

  The design of App Store search today is to generate more revenue for Apple. That's not criminal, but it's a change.

• 3

  Apple really does have a religious fervor for privacy.

• 6

  The trust Apple would earn from such a move would far out-value whatever revenue these ads pad to their already hefty and ever-increasing quarterly Services numbers.

• 7

  'The companies that offer you services free-of-charge to show you ads are betraying your privacy and disrespecting your attention' is a powerful marketing message that only one major tech company used to be able to credibly make.

Tone

critical, opinionated, sympathetic