What can Apple’s user-centered approach to privacy teach us?

Moving beyond the rollercoaster of excitement and controversy Apple has been in for the last week, there was one thing in the WWDC keynote that stood out for me. One thing I really appreciated seeing. There is something special about Apple’s commitment to privacy.

Despite the amount of articles, podcasts and controversies around privacy in the last five to ten years, it feels like little of importance has been said or done. With a few exceptions nothing really moved, we are just deeper in the trenches, more resigned towards change. The only meaningful adaptation we’ve seen from the Big Tech has been akin to greenwashing. Big Tech learned to talk like privacy is important, but hasn’t actually changed their services.

Facebook makes privacy the user’s problem — their main response to various controversies has been adding privacy toggles anywhere, allowing you to customise who sees your updates. Ironically, the Facebook’s privacy problem has never been so much the people on the platform, but the Facebook platform itself. This is akin to a fashion or soft drink giant making the ecological impact of their products the user problem. Is ‘privacywashing’ a term?

In this whole mess, Apple stands out. They are contributing something meaningful to the privacy debate. Something that seems subtle and…