In the last few years Apple has put the spotlight onattention to privacybut according to his own engineers this choice slows down development. Having less data available makes it more difficult to develop artificial intelligence solutions to deliver the personalized experience that many users demand.
For Apple engineers, privacy slows app development
Apple wanted to give users several ways to manage their data by decreasing access to third-party apps. But also limiting the availability of information to their engineersaccording to what emerges from the statements of some Apple employees.
The Information newspaper reports the words of an Apple engineer who explains the difference between the Apple TV + algorithm and that of Netflix. “Look at Apple TV +. The paid video streaming service, unlike its other main rivals, does not collect demographic information about users or the history of what they have watched ”. This means that those who work in the service “cannot analyze how customers go from one content to another, making it nearly impossible recommend new videos according to preferences “.
Engineers continue to complain that Apple projects some projects because they contravene the dictates of privacy. Like when in 2019, according to engineers, Apple was working on a service of voice recognition to make purchases via Siri, as is the case with Alexa. But having decided not to associate the Siri recordings to improve the assistant with the user’s Apple ID, they had to discard the project.
The Information article actually reads that Apple can still use privacy “differential”To separate the link between users and data. Furthermore, the company buy data anonymized for analysis like many other companies.
But according to Apple’s engineers, it happens that figure junior in the privacy branch of the company can prevent manager access to data in the software development sectors. And they have to adapt to working with less data than they would have available in another company.
However, users seem to greatly appreciate Apple’s attention to privacy, sales of products and services seem to confirm this.