Apple privately described Android as a 'massive tracking device'

Slides from an internal Apple presentation have been shown in Google's antitrust trial, contrasting the two firms' very different approaches to privacy for customers.

As the Department of Justice's (DOJ) antitrust trial against Google continues, it has continually centered on the company's deal to be the default search engine on iPhones. Apple's Eddy Cue has testified that it was because "we've always thought it was the best."

Now, though, it seems that Apple was not equally enamored of Google in every way. A slide deck has been shown in court of a 2013 Apple presentation that examines how privacy is used or abused across the industry.

This was an internal presentation, so Apple didn't need pull its punches

The slides were emailed by Eddy Cue to Tim Cook and Phil Schiller, and included one slide that was blunt about the Android operating system. "Android is a massive tracking device," it said.

That was all Apple wrote on that particular slide, but among the rest of the presentation deck it gave more detail, and also quoted Google's Eric Schmidt.

The criticism of Android comes in an overall privacy presentation which also included this timeline

"Google's policy is to get right up to the creepy line but not cross it," Schmidt reportedly said in 2010. "I would argue that implanting things in your brain is beyond the creepy line. At least for the moment, until the technology gets better."

Much of Apple's presentation is redacted but among the other slides that can be read is a Privacy Timeline. It lists Facebook's tracking of users even if they opt out, and Google's Street View recorded private Wi-Fi communications.

Currently, Google pays Apple to remain the default search engine on iPhones. That may have to stop if the DOJ wins its case, in which case Apple — which is not accused of any wrongdoing — could lose as much as $20 billion per year.