Affiliate Disclosure
If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read our ethics policy.

New iPhone privacy ad takes shots at other smartphones oversharing information

Apple has shared a new humorous ad spot about people over sharing private information as a way to highlight the data that its privacy features can help keep safe.

The company launched its "Privacy. That's iPhone" ad campaign in 2019. It features various clips highlighting the importance of digital privacy, and ways that the iPhone can help protect it.

This latest ad, just over one minute, features various people telling others around them personal and sensitive details about their lives — such as their credit card numbers, internet search history, and their workout heart rate.

"Some things shouldn't be shared. That's why iPhone is designed to help give you control over your information and protect your privacy," Apple said in the video description.

While the overshared details are humorous, they also each highlight a particular privacy feature on iOS. The woman sharing her credit card numbers, for example, highlights Apple Pay's ability to mask real credentials with a temporary number. Several people sharing their internet search history hints at the Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature in Safari.

Apple has long had a focus on protecting user privacy and data, and is introducing new privacy features in its upcoming iOS 14 software update.

One of those features, which lets users opt out of ad tracking on a per-app basis, has everyone from Facebook to news publishers concerned about advertising revenue.



19 Comments

retrogusto 16 Years · 1140 comments

I think this is the best ad they’ve had in a while.

Last year I was thinking about how you give specific location data to so many apps that would do just as well with more general location data, like a weather app, so I submitted an iOS feature request to Apple, with a fairly detailed description of a feature that would allow you to choose to only give more vague location data to certain apps, for instance by providing a location chosen at random within, say, a mile of your actual location, and only updating it when you had moved significantly from that spot. 

I recently read in the New York Times that something similar will be coming in iOS 14—it would be cool to receive an acknowledgement of my contribution, but I’m also just happy to see it. 

🕯️
pujones1 12 Years · 222 comments

Great ad!! This is one of the main reasons I stick with Apple. I love the privacy focus in iOS 14. I hope more people become aware of what's being shared and actually care. 

🕯️
aderutter 17 Years · 625 comments

Even though I’d read about the ad before seeing it, it still made me laugh. Like it a lot.

kidrock2199 10 Years · 143 comments

 :D That’s the best as I’ve seen in a long time! Great job, Tim Apple