Apple has recently released a new Transparency Report, detailing the company's interaction with governments and app removals from the App Store.
Transparency reports may just be a way for companies to carry favor with their users. By openly acknowledging and owning up to deficits in certain privacy maintenance standards, or even displaying a lack of any such behaviors, tech corporations can generate some form of good PR, while also keeping their loyal customers in the loop as to what's going on. Naturally, such marketing tactics, if this can be called one, are becoming more and more necessary. Brand loyalty isn't something clung to as tightly as in the 90's and early 2000's, and users are more likely to leave a product at the drop of a hat if they find something better. Even more pressing is the fact that users are more aware than ever of concerning online privacy issues can be. Such transparency records help cover up some of the gap between users and companies.
Apple's recent report covers the company's activity for the latter half of 2020. In it, the tech giant revealed that this time period saw governments requesting data covering approximately 83,307 separate devices, of which 77% were approved. While that is still a very, very worrying amount, progress has been made. The number shot down from the 80% acceptance rate for the same time period in 2019, and more important is the fact that overall requests decreased to just under half of the latter 2019 amount as well. It should be mentioned that 2019 also saw the USA 2020 elections drawing near, which would explain why government requests were suddenly so high. Accordingly, much of the data supplied by Apple might also prove to be inconsequential to users, however, that still doesn't act as justification.
The most amount of data requests per government were made by Germany, accounting for 16,819 of the devices. China was at the number two spot, with 11,372 requests. It should also be noted that while Germany's overall requests went down from 19,633 in latter 2019, China's requests skyrocketed from just 851 in the same time period. To which all this author can say is yikes.
Finally, for App Store takedowns, Apple received around 39 legal violations which concerned 206 separate applications. China was responsible for 26 of those violation requests, taking down 90 applications with it. India followed that number up with just six requests that, however, covered 102 applications.
Creator: Drew Angerer / Credit: Getty Images
Read next: Apple And The European Union Butt Heads Over A New Proposed Side Loading Act
Transparency reports may just be a way for companies to carry favor with their users. By openly acknowledging and owning up to deficits in certain privacy maintenance standards, or even displaying a lack of any such behaviors, tech corporations can generate some form of good PR, while also keeping their loyal customers in the loop as to what's going on. Naturally, such marketing tactics, if this can be called one, are becoming more and more necessary. Brand loyalty isn't something clung to as tightly as in the 90's and early 2000's, and users are more likely to leave a product at the drop of a hat if they find something better. Even more pressing is the fact that users are more aware than ever of concerning online privacy issues can be. Such transparency records help cover up some of the gap between users and companies.
Apple's recent report covers the company's activity for the latter half of 2020. In it, the tech giant revealed that this time period saw governments requesting data covering approximately 83,307 separate devices, of which 77% were approved. While that is still a very, very worrying amount, progress has been made. The number shot down from the 80% acceptance rate for the same time period in 2019, and more important is the fact that overall requests decreased to just under half of the latter 2019 amount as well. It should be mentioned that 2019 also saw the USA 2020 elections drawing near, which would explain why government requests were suddenly so high. Accordingly, much of the data supplied by Apple might also prove to be inconsequential to users, however, that still doesn't act as justification.
The most amount of data requests per government were made by Germany, accounting for 16,819 of the devices. China was at the number two spot, with 11,372 requests. It should also be noted that while Germany's overall requests went down from 19,633 in latter 2019, China's requests skyrocketed from just 851 in the same time period. To which all this author can say is yikes.
Finally, for App Store takedowns, Apple received around 39 legal violations which concerned 206 separate applications. China was responsible for 26 of those violation requests, taking down 90 applications with it. India followed that number up with just six requests that, however, covered 102 applications.
Creator: Drew Angerer / Credit: Getty Images
Read next: Apple And The European Union Butt Heads Over A New Proposed Side Loading Act
