Hi and hope all are well today. First, thanks in advance for any / all responses. Second, apologies if this isn’t the best place to ask this question.
I’m curious if anyone, has moved completely from using an AppleTV to something else. Current use case for the ATV is a few streaming apps (Crunchyroll / HiDive, Tubi, etc.) and Apple Arcade (a few casual games).
If you did completely switch, what did you decide on using? Did you go back to buying movies / using a DVD/Blu-Ray player, setup a mini PC and stream from websites / rip music and movies, use a gaming console instead, etc.?
Exploring options and entertaining thoughts for right now. Again, thanks and have a good day / evening.
Edit - 2024/01/01 - Just wanted to thank everyone for the lively discussion and resources (links, recommendations, etc.) related to my question.
Apple is the least terrible of my list.
I mean, neither of you is wrong. On user privacy, Apple is probably the least worst of the big providers. At the same time their business model is to lock in users to their platform and hardware. “Once you’ve gone Mac you’re not going back” is the result of a deliberate design choice on Apple’s part.
Sounds to me like OP is aiming to bypass the entire corporate cloud service mess by going self-sufficient via FLOSS?
Apple, the company that has by far the worst anti-consumer practices when it comes to technology and is actively lobbying against you being able to own your products?
Based on what metric? Because Apple says so?
Because Apple doesn’t rely on selling or advertising your data as a business segment. That alone makes them the lesser evil.
Still an evil, just less.
I find this very hard to believe.
“We provide some non-personal data to our advertisers and strategic partners that work with Apple to provide our products and services, help Apple market to customers, and sell ads on Apple’s behalf to display on the App Store and Apple News and Stocks. For example, we may share non-personal data about your transactions and viewing activity, as well as aggregated user demographics such as age group, gender (which may be inferred from information such as your name and salutation in your Apple ID account), and region, to Apple TV strategic partners, such as content owners, so that they can measure the performance of their creative work, meet royalty and accounting requirements, and improve their associated products and services.”
All in all, yes, Apple is generally better than other Big Tech companies (cough, Meta, cough cough, Amazon, cough Samsung), when it comes to privacy. They seem to do a better job at collecting less data, probably because they aren’t trying to sell as many ads as Google and Facebook – yet.
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/apple-tv-4k/
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Roku’s data sharing is vast, which is, unfortunately, too common in the streaming TV space. Automatic Content Recognition or ACR is the way Roku and others try to identify every show you watch whether it be streaming, cable, broadcast on an antenna, or even the DVDs you watch. They collect all this data to target you with new shows, and allow you to be targeted with lots of ads from lots of places. It’s a lot of data collection and you should opt out. Note when you opt out of ACR, a Roku spokeswoman said, “Opting out of ACR does not affect collection of information about the use of Roku streaming channels.” So yeah, they’re still collecting data on you, just a little less.
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/roku-streaming-sticks/
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Of course, Google uses your personal information to sell those targeted, personalized ads you see all over the place like in your Gmail, in your favorite Solitaire app, on partner websites, and on YouTube. Yup, the ads are everywhere. Google does say they won’t use things like your religious beliefs or health information to show you ads…although we just have to trust them on that. I’m sure we’ve all seen ads based on sensitive things about us that felt pretty creepy. And Google says they won’t use content from your Google Drive, Email, or Photos to personalize ads. We sure hope not.
Google also says they can collect a good bit of information on your child if they use Google services, including services managed by parents through Family Link for children under 13. The data they say they can collect on your child includes location data, voice and audio information, what apps and devices your child uses, and your child’s activity within Google’s services. And then they say they can use that data to “provide recommendations, personalized content, and customized search results.” Yes, Google is going to push content to your kid basd on their online activities. Google does say that they, “… will not serve personalized ads to your child, which means ads will not be based on information from your child’s account or profile. Instead, ads may be based on information like the content of the website or app your child is viewing, the current search query, or general location (such as city or state). When browsing the web or using non-Google apps, your child may encounter ads served by other (non-Google) ad providers, including ads personalized by third parties.” Parents, if you plan to let your kids use Google’s services, it’s good to do some research beforehand.
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/google-chromecast-with-google-tv/
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It’s a matter of who sells the least amount of data. Seems to be Apple.
Seems to be that way. I agree with your insinuation that “they aren’t trying to sell as many ads as Google and Facebook – yet”. I don’t see any special ethics beyond keeping their brand loyalty afloat.
Not my insinuation; it’s Mozilla’s.
I’m happy to be proven wrong, but need a little more than some anon’s vague doubts first.
https://lemmy.world/comment/6326127
So you don’t have a source either? ;)
Also you could just……review their public financial statements and compare to other tech companies. Google is very much an advertising company, and it’s a huge part of their reported profits. The fact that you could ignore that and think Apple is worse simply because you feel like they are is just a silly debate strategy.
Yeah, I tend to think the first one to posit a statement should also be the first to supply evidence
Exactly. Not sure why it would be on me for refuting a statement.
That was a claim offered without evidence.
For your own argument? No, I won’t prove your points for you.
If you believe Apple is doing something, I await evidence they are until shown otherwise. If you’re just flipping that logic around to shirk this, then you’re not actually trying to converse in good faith here.
If you want a source for my argument, here you go: https://fossbytes.com/apple-data-collection-explained/
Hey there ya go! Providing a source for the argument you made first! Thanks.
Your turn ;)
You could also just look at the revenue streams reported by each company and see that most other tech companies make a majority of their money on what Apple has been accused of doing.
Ok, let’s say that’s true. Which of the alternatives do you genuinely think are better?
Fallacious question. In real life there can be no good options. That doesn’t mean we should support one for being less bad.
If there can be no good options then you have to support the less “bad” option.
A trillion dollars is hard to make without selling data, but fair enough.
It isn’t that hard when you convince a globe that your luxury phone is the only status symbol that matters.
Apple isn’t perfect, but the premium you pay on their devices does mean that they wrap the data mining bat in some padding first before they beat you over the head with it. Microsoft and Google just keep adding more nails.
Do you have any examples beyond your own preconception?
If Apple were secretly doing this without user consent this would be a pretty huge liability for them.
Well, I worked for them for quite a while and never saw or heard anything that suggested a large scale data collection program existed beyond the usual analytics that people can opt out of. I’m on a plane, so I don’t have the time to do a deep dig at the moment, but for a quick anecdotal test, I’d say you could just open the menus of a Microsoft computer, Google computer, and Apple computer, and tell me who seems to be shoving more targeted ads down your throat.
Sure, if you use their Apple TV streaming service or other equivalent media thing, I’m sure they collect data, sell, and use it, but that is a far cry from some of the really invasive moves we’ve seen from companies that produce ad supported hardware/software.
The contents of my computer should be mine because I straight up own it. If I’m connecting to a subscription service that I don’t own, then I have a slightly lower expectation of total privacy.
Agreed with the main points you said. It’s one thing for a company to collect hardware data and usage stats for their services but to compare Apple to the likes of Google and Roku which make a majority of their profit on collecting and selling data, then there needs to be evidence of data collection beyond that.
I think you may have misunderstood me. I’m saying that Apple isn’t as bad as Roku, Google, or Microsoft. They collect some data, yes, but it seems to be reasonable by comparison.
I think we might be vigorously agreeing with each other in a circle, lol.
Then it shouldn’t be difficult for you to provide me with some examples, considering the other listed companies literally do it openly as a major part of their revenue stream.
We should absolutely be upset with the shit Apple is doing, but right now you’re just being contrarian with a false argument.
Go to Google and search for “is Apple selling data”. Have fun reading about how, yes they have been caught doing it in the past and are still being suspected of it. You’re naive if you think just because it isn’t public knowledge yet that one of the cruelest companies on the planet isn’t in to some other nefarious crap.
I did what you said, and found this article that goes into what Apple does collect, compared to what Google collects, and confirms that no, Apple is not selling your data.
https://fossbytes.com/apple-data-collection-explained/
So I guess that means you’re wrong?
Maybe next time argue with facts and not feelings.
I’m not the one going to bat for a trillion dollar company simply because they said “trust me, bro”.
Even if you it opt out on Apple devices they continue to gather data. Why do you think they do that? Fun? They just collect it like Pokemon?
There only “feeling” I have is pity for naive users such as yourself. As long as Tim Cook keeps telling you it’s safe you can rest easy knowing you’re 100% not being lied to.
lol I give you a source that refutes your “Apple bad” argument and you have to resort to going after me personally because you have nothing left.
The data collection you mention is device and usage stats, which basically everyone collects. But that was never the issue, which was selling user data for profit. The source I provided compares what Apple and Google collects and determines Apple does not do this.
You can also look up revenue streams for both companies and clearly see that while Apple does not consider this as a revenue stream, it makes up a significant portion of what Google brings in every year. At that point I think you just have misdirected anger.