Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t taken too kindly to some comments Apple CEO Tim Cook made a while back that seemed to imply Google and Facebook turned its users into “products.”
In an interview with Time, an irritated Zuck said that the demonizing of ad-based revenue models for Facebook was ridiculous. Though Cook’s comments were probably geared toward more direct competitors, like Google, what he said could be applied to Facebook.
“A frustration I have is that a lot of people increasingly seem to equate an advertising business model with somehow being out of alignment with your customers,” Zuckerberg said. ” What, you think because you’re paying Apple that you’re somehow in alignment with them? What, you think because you’re paying Apple that you’re somehow in alignment with them? If you were in alignment with them, then they’d make their products a lot cheaper.”
Zuckerberg was referring to a statement published in September by Cook that explained Apple’s privacy policy.
“A few years ago, users of Internet services began to realize that when an online service is free, you’re not the customer. You’re the product,” Cook wrote. “But at Apple, we believe a great customer experience shouldn’t come at the expense of your privacy.”
Cook is pushing the idea that with Apple, privacy is promised. Some would be quick to disagree, of course, because of incidents like the massive hack of celebrities’ iCloud accounts. Cook’s privacy statement was, in some ways, a direct response to the iCloud hack.
Zuckerberg’s comments were also directed at Ello, the anti-Facebook social network that doesn’t harvest personal information and support advertisements. But Zuck apparently wouldn’t go too far into the harvesting of user data, as a publicist changed the subject.
– mashable