Big Brother Apple

Diwaker Gupta — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:30:51 +0000

Do you remember the [[http://youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8|1984 ad from Apple]]? I’ve embedded it at the bottom if you haven’t. Anyways, the point is that I was trying to download the “free” Apple iPhone SDK today and apparently they require me to sign up first. I thought alright, that doesn’t seem too unreasonable. Now I have the sign up form in front of me, and I just don’t understand why the following fields are marked as “required”:

* company: what if I’m NOT in a company? what if I’m NOT using the SDK for work related purposes? what if I just don’t want to tell you where I work? Of course I realize I can always make this up, but why does Apple feel the need to pry on my professional/personal life so badly?
* address: are you going to send me a check in the mail? As long as I’m not involved in a monetary transaction with Apple, they shouldn’t be need my address. If they want to geo-localize interest in their SDK, I’m sure they are already doing that by logging my IP address. Again, I can make up an address but that’s not the point (besides, I’m sure somewhere in the fine print they will have me click some check box that is a proof of my consent that the information I have submitted is accurate)
* phone number: tele marketing?

Well guess what, the iPhone SDK is only available for Mac. So much for cross platform development and openness and what not.

httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8

Floating Sun » privacy

Big Brother Apple