One of the most violent discussions that we see in the comments are those that talk about security and privacy, as some find it an opportunity to mock Android and say that iOS is more secure, and others find it comments that it has nothing of great interest and tempts others to spy. In this article we will talk about the two points; Is privacy really a luxury? Is iOS more privacy protection than Android?

Is privacy really a luxury?

There are imprecise notions about privacy and the importance of protecting it; Some think that he is a normal person as well as a "man" and does not use credit cards on his phone or computer and accordingly there is nothing to fear about privacy; Whoever wants to breach or violate privacy will not find anything important. This may be true in the case of hackers intending to hack a device for a specific person, such as a famous person, a bank official, or a politician. But the truth is that breaching privacy is more complicated than this. In order to learn the importance of privacy even for the average person, we will tell you an example of a party very famous for violating privacy, which is "Facebook".

Facebook always aims, like any social service, to study its users and find out what they prefer, in order to make you prolong the period of your use of it. So it is always experimenting with users without letting them know that it is being tested on them. For example, between August and October 2010, Facebook conducted a study to explore how news spreads to it. This study was conducted on 253 million users, which is a huge and terrifying number, especially since the number of Facebook users at the time was approximately 550 million. Another experiment in the same year was conducted on 61 million people and in 2012 they conducted an experiment on 151 million people.

You may be wondering how do these experiments work and what happens in them? Experiences In short, Facebook monitors your behavior, then makes adjustments to the News Feed and sees what has changed in your style and interaction. Indeed, the site announced its discovery that we are strongly affected by these experiences, and even said that in 2010 he managed to persuade 340 people to go to vote in the US elections using these experiences.

Reports said experiments have already shown that we are affected by the site and thus shape our behavior. For example, if Facebook publishes many positive news in the "news feed" and hides the negative news, the result will be that we, too, start publishing positive news. And vice versa. That is, it controls our moods and feelings (in a certain proportion, of course). Let's imagine another terrifying example together.

Imagine that there are elections to choose a president in a country, so Facebook, directly or through an intermediary, supports a specific candidate; Accordingly, it controls the news that appears to you; Then he shows you the positive news that is published about the candidate who supports him and hides the bad news from him. Consequently, you find yourself over time seeing tons of negative news about a certain candidate, so you hate him, find positive about the other, and support him. In the end, the candidate who favors Facebook wins in the elections.

If you feel that the foregoing is a fictional example, the truth is that it is not an example but rather what happened in the previous US elections, the Facebook scandal and the investigations that were conducted to find out whether the party that interfered with Cambridge Analytica was Facebook intentional and knows what it is doing or not. But the bottom line is that it has happened and can be repeated (Facebook officially has a section to help election campaigns in dozens of countries on the best way to use it to support their candidate, and we repeat this what is done "officially")

Is iOS more privacy protection than Android?

The easy answer to this question is "yes" and the actual answer is "maybe or no." The Android system itself is not a weak system, but it may sometimes be more secure than iOS. But there are factors that make the iPhone more protective of privacy due to several factors, including, for example, updates; When a vulnerability is discovered, both Apple and Google close it, but what happens is that iOS devices for the previous 5 years receive the update, while Android devices often more than 90% of their devices do not receive this update. In other words, we are faced with a reality that says that both Apple and Google have both closed the loophole, meaning that the user of the two systems is assumed to be safe; But actually, the update does not reach the largest segment of Android users, and accordingly they remain at risk ... The second point that makes Apple more protective of privacy is the complexities of the system; Apple prefers to be more violent in monitoring and strictness of applications and setting restrictions for them, and accordingly, it is difficult to collect data from iOS, unlike Android.

So why did we mention that the actual answer is "maybe or not" .. because it is simply the one who controls the user. You may use iOS, but you download anonymous applications or jailbreak, or by granting permissions to any application to access any data, you put yourself at risk; You may use Android, but monitor what you download, download security applications, and carefully scrutinize requests for access to data sent by applications, so that your phone becomes more secure than the first person. In the end, the method of use is the one that takes the first decision in terms of security and privacy, then comes the operating system. If we compare the same person with the same use in the two systems, from our point of view, iOS will be more protective of his privacy.

last word

Protecting your privacy is up to you, and the Facebook example is a strong and stark example of the ability of major companies to control us. Imagine what Google can do when it knows where to go and has all of your photos and contacts. Imagine what Microsoft could do while you were using its system and so could Apple. Perhaps Apple and Microsoft are considered the least dangerous for the main reason, which is that data is not a source of income for them, unlike Facebook, Google and Twitter, for example, who can make you love and hate it and go to a specific place and restaurant and shape your thinking through the information that appears and those that they hide. Do not tolerate the point of privacy and think that you are more powerful than their influence; They influence even without knowing.

Do you care about privacy and security and think about it before downloading any application or giving permissions? Do you think that iOS is more protection for your privacy than Android? Share your opinion in the comments

Related articles