Apple's Privacy No-show

Apple Day is officially over. Did you stay up or skip work/school to watch the Apple keynote? Perhaps you had better things to do. There was a new watch, a new iPad, and three different iPhones.

And oh yes, let's not forget the ultra-cheap TV+ streaming platform. Because, let's face it. Apple's in the services business now. And any service that keeps customers invested in its ecosystem is a win for Apple.

Like most Apple products in recent years, TV+ is not just here to provide a good service, but to pull customers towards itself, keeping them in orbit "around a Cupertino black hole that sucks in cash for annual iPhone upgrades."

It's no surprise that the company has a knack for fetishising new stuff as a status symbol.

These services are less a utility and more a Trojan horse that are bound tightly with the hardware, so much so that they are virtually useless outside of Apple's platform. Same is the case with Amazon Alexa and Facebook Portal.

But I found it curious that the company did not bring up privacy not once during the entire keynote. And when it did, it was only to market its existing Face ID functionality.

Which is strange because Apple hasn't let go of an opportunity to parade its privacy initiatives at every turn, and mighty incongruous for a company that ran a giant billboard ad proclaiming, "What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone," at the start of this year.

The much-vaunted reputation of iOS as the most locked-down and secure operating system has taken a beating over the past few weeks, in part due to multiple disclosures from Google's Project Zero security team.

First were the six zero-click attacks made it possible to take over iPhones without any direct interaction.

Then came the zero-day vulnerabilities that allowed a small number of websites to indiscriminately infect thousands of iPhone users, mainly targeting the Uyghur Muslim minority in China.

Last but not least, zero-day exploit reseller Zerodium said an increase in the number of iOS exploits have led to a reduction in the prices they command when compared to Android.

In its vague rebuttal, Apple not only disputed the scale of the attack without sharing any specifics, it also belittled its scope, while accusing Google of "stoking fear among all iPhone users that their devices had been compromised."

Alex Stamos, Facebook's former chief information officer, called Apple's response "somewhere between 'disappointing' and 'disgusting'," adding, "disputing Google's correct use of 'indiscriminate' when describing a watering hole attack smacks of 'it's ok, it didn't hit white people.'" Oof.

Apple had to say a lot about its new gadgets and the amazing things they can do (did you know that the Apple Watch can now tell time?), but it kept entirely mum about privacy.

Although these flaws were fixed after they were privately disclosed, the keynote was a chance for the company to apologise to the community, acknowledge its errors and reaffirm its commitment to the privacy and security of its users.

Just as it inserts itself as a middleman in an ever-growing number of transactions that it hopes will lock loyal users into its walled garden, Apple had the option to instil trust by answering the burning questions: What sort of data will it be collecting? How exactly will that happen? Who will have access to this data? Do consumers have the ability to opt-out?

In choosing to live in an Apple-centric universe, surrounded by its planet of apps and services, the iPhone maker's announcements weren't just a bid for our wallets but also for our data. Its silence on privacy and security during its most high-profile event, if nothing else, is all the more deafening.

But in side-stepping the issue altogether, it would seem Apple would rather talk about anything other than drawing attention to its failures.