Apple is known for having a user base that’svery loyal and enthusiastic about their products. 

But there is an equally enthusiastic hatred toward Apple from other people in the tech community, who have trouble understanding why anyone would choose Apple devices over their competitors. 

And in this video I’m going to give you the #1 reason why you should be using Apple products over anything else, and it’s are a son I think should be discussed a lot more often. 

This is Greg with Apple Explained and if you want to help decide which video topics I cover, make sure you’re subscribed and these voting polls will show up in your mobile activity feed. 

So what is the the #1 reason to use Apple products? Could it be their beautiful industrial design? Their approachable user interface? Their optimized operating systems? Or perhaps their seamless user experience? In my opinion, those are all legitimate advantages of Apple products, but there’s one huge reason that’s rarely mentioned by news outlets or users themselves. 

And that is privacy. 

Apple has maintained such an uncompromising stance on privacy, that it actually led to a lawsuit from the US Justice Department. 

Now we’ll talk more about that later, because I want to begin by acknowledging a question most of you are probably thinking. Which is, “why does privacy even matter?” After all, it appears the importance of privacy is declining these days. 

With social media sites like Facebook, Twitter,and Instagram, people are comfortable sharing more of their data to the public than ever be fore. 

In fact, Facebook CEO Mark Zucker burg had this to say on the subject, “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. 

That social norm is just something that hase volved over time.” And while I think that’s true, I don’tthink it suggests privacy isn’t important. 

Individuals can choose to make as much about themselves public as they want. It’s how their data is used that becomes deceptive. 

If I share my email address, work location,and personal interests with facebook, it’s because I want my friends on the platform to have access to that information. 

Not because I want Facebook to sell it to companies in exchange for targeted ads. But it isn’t just Facebook who engages in this practice. 

The Cambridge Analytic a scandal revealed Amazon and Google also collect huge amounts of data on their users to sell to advertisers. 

And it’s easy to understand why. 

The business of selling user data is very lucrative. 

That’s why Facebook has grown into a $138 billion dollar company without selling any hardware or premium services. 

And as you’ve probably heard before, if  you’re not paying for a product, you likely are the product. But despite these privacy violations, we continue to use services from Facebook, Amazon and Google. 

Likely because the vast majority of us don’t even know these privacy violations are happening. 

Typically, companies do disclose this information,but it’s often buried in their terms and conditions which very few people actually read. 

In fact, your right to privacy is violated by simply browsing the web. Since your internet service provider and government agencies can see what websites you visit and are likely logging that information on their systems. 

That’s why many people, myself included,use services like Nord VPN when browsing the internet. 

VPN s act as a kind’ ve virtual invisibility cloak that mask internet behavior from ISP s by encrypting internet data and shielding your location from websites. 

And this leads me to a question I hear a lotwhen arguing in support of digital privacy. And that is, “why should I care about privacyif I have nothing to hide?” And the answer is, privacy isn’t about hidingsomething because you’ve broken the law. 

Privacy is about having the right to withholdinformation in certain circumstances to prevent misuse and misappropriation. 

For example, most people prefer to keep personallyidentifiable information like their social security number, address, and bank informationprivate. 

Not because they’re doing something bad,but because something harmful, like identity theft, could be done to them if that informationwere public. 

And in more extreme circumstances, data hasbeen used against citizens by totalitarian governments. From 1950 to 1990 East Germany had a so-called“security agency” that consisted of 90,000 spies and about 200,000 informants. 

The agency kept detailed records on hundredsof thousands of their citizens and used this information to psychologically harass, blackmail,and discredit people who opposed the despotic regime. 

Keep in mind, this was all before the internetexisted. 

That’s why today, the system of mass surveillancehappening in countries like the US is extremely dangerous. 

No one can predict how this information willbe used by future administrations or by foreign governments who successfully steal data fromthe US. 

Which has happened, by the way. 

And if you think your data is safe with corporationssince they operate outside of the government, you would be mistaken. Here’s a list of twenty-one of the biggestcorporate data breaches, most of which occurred in the past ten years, and effected billionsof people. 

So chances are, some of your personal datais already being used by hackers to access certain accounts. 

But this goes further than data being leaked,it’s how data is used by corporations to infer things about you that haven’t evenbeen shared. 

For example, Target can accurately predictwhich of their shoppers are pregnant based on the items they buy. 

This led to the company accidentally exposinga teenage shopper’s pregnancy to her father by mailing coupons for baby clothes and cribsto their house. 

Now I give all of these examples just to provethe ways unwanted data collection can negatively effect everyday, law-abiding people like youand me. 

It’s why privacy is so important and shouldbe taken seriously. 

And Apple has proven to be the only majortech company in the world that not only refuses to sell their users data to advertisers, butis willing to stand up and fight for digital privacy on behalf of their users. 

Just last year Tim Cook expressed his supportfor Europes data regulations and called for a “comprehensive federal privacy law”in the US. 

And this position on privacy is nothing newfor Apple. 

Steve Jobs shared the same beliefs when hewas CEO [clip] So it’s clear that Apple is satisfied makingmoney from hardware and services rather than advertising. 

But their privacy policy is so strict thatsome people think it actually stunted the growth of Siri. Supposedly, after it was first introduced,Siri improved rapidly and was on track to outperform competing voice assistants enteringthe market. 

But after some time, Apple realized Siri wassharing data with multiple third party apps, which they decided was dangerous and violatedtheir users privacy. 

So Apple reengineered the voice assistantand that’s when it began losing ground to its competition. 

Now if this story is in fact true, it demonstratesjust how committed Apple is to protecting users privacy. 

Perhaps an even more convincing case happenedin 2016 when the FBI asked Apple to unlock an iPhone that was used by a terrorist inthe San Bernadino shootings, in an attempt to find more information about their contactsor affiliations. 

But Apple declined. Saying, “The implications of the government’sdemands are chilling. 

If the government can use the All Writs Actto make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’sdevice to capture their data.” The FBI subsequently sued Apple for noncomplianceand claimed that the software would only be used to unlock one iPhone, but it was laterdiscovered that the agency had over 200 iPhones ready to be unlocked using the tool. 

Which actually proved Apple’s point whenCook said, “the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, andsomething we consider too dangerous to create. 

They have asked us to build a backdoor tothe iPhone.” Now in the end the FBI supposedly found anotherway to unlock the device and didn’t need Apple’s help after all. 

And if you’re wondering why other companieslike Microsoft or Google haven’t had similar run-ins with the FBI, it’s because they’reknown to’ve incorporated backdoors into their services for government access. 

Something Apple refuses to do. 

In fact, one of the reasons why Apple doesn’tcollect identifiable user data like iMessage conversations, is because if they don’thave the information themselves, then they have nothing to turn over to the government. 

And when they do collect data, Apple usestechniques like differential privacy. 

Which prevents them from identifying the particulardevice data is coming from. 

And by combining this anonymous data sourcedfrom thousands of devices, Apple is able to recognize patterns and behaviors that revealhow people are using their devices, all without revealing the users themselves. 

So while it may not be an obvious benefitof the Apple ecosystem, privacy is the quality that differentiates them the most from competitors. 

And it isn’t something Apple implementsonce for bragging rights and then moves to the back-burner. 

Privacy is integrated into just about everyfeature of every product. iMessage and FaceTime are fully encryptedend-to-end, so only you and the person you’re talking to are hearing the conversation. 

Apple was one of the first companies to includenative OS disk encryption with FileVault in macOS, which prevents anyone from accessingthe data on your Mac with the proper credentials. 

Maps uses on-device data to collect and store information like search terms and route navigation, so where you’ve been and where you’re going isn’t stored on Apple’s servers. 

And for apps that do feature advertising like the App Store, Apple News, and Stocks, access to your data is limited to behavior in side each respective app. 

And you can even turn on Limit Ad Tracking in your Apple devices settings to stop receiving targeted ads. 

Now I mentioned earlier that this issue of privacy isn’t discussed very often. 

But in the past couple years, it is getting more media attention since personal data from various social media sites and tech companieshave been weaponized in some very serious ways. 

And Apple seemed to’ve caught on to this,since they are now promoting their stance on privacy very publicly with things likead campaigns and an updated privacy page on their website. 

But I don’t think they’re doing this is solely for good publicity, I think Apple is trying to mount as much pressure as possible on companies like Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, in order to force them to make a tough decision: Either end the mass collection of user data, which would likely cost the mbillions in lost revenue. 

Or change nothing and concede that Apple is the superior company when it comes to protecting user privacy. 

And as I mentioned before, if you care about privacy, then using a VPN while browsing online is a must. 

Personally, I use Nord VPN since they’re not only highly recommended by outlets like PCMag, but they’re one of the only VPN services that uses AES-256 encryption, which is about twice as secure as the industry average. 

Nord VPN also provides 24/7 live chat and email support which is perfect is you’ve never used a VPN before and may have questions. 

They were also kind enough to give Apple Explained viewers 75% off a three year plan which is an incredibly good deal that I highly recommendtaking advantage of. 

So if you’d like to get started with Nord VPN,just click the link in the description and use the code apple to get 75% off your three year plan, and receive an extra month for free. 

Alright guys, thanks for watching and I’llsee you next time.