Apple's latest iPhone privacy ad touts iMessage encryption

Apple on Friday published a third installment to an ad series focusing on iPhone privacy, with the latest commercial throwing a spotlight on the company's end-to-end encrypted iMessage platform.

The ad posted to Apple's YouTube page, titled "Inside Joke," centers around a woman reading an iMessage conversation on her iPhone XR. Echoing the privacy theme, viewers are not privy to the contents of the conversation which, judging by the woman's reaction, is immensely humorous.

A majority of the minute-long spot consists of a single uninterrupted shot of the iPhone owner reading incoming texts. Each new message is funnier than the last and what begins as a chuckle soon turns into hysterical laughter.

The ad cuts to a wide shot, showing the woman in a salon getting a pedicure with other customers and staff nearby. A closing shot puts iPhone XR front and center as the woman continues to cackle.

A tagline reads, "iMessage encrypts your conversations [b]ecause not everyone needs to be in on the joke," and is followed by the campaign's slogan, "Privacy. That's iPhone."

Friday's commercial is the third in a series touting iPhone's various privacy features. The first debuted in March and served as a general introduction to Apple's new iPhone advertising thrust. A second spot, also aired in March, highlighted anti-ad tracking measures in Safari.

Apple's campaign arrives amidst a wider push for data privacy in the tech sector. Over the past few weeks, serial offenders Facebook and Google have attempted to recast their respective public images as born-again reformers, promising transparency and offering user tools to manage collected information. Both, however, continue to operate business strategies reliant on customer data.