Meta Apple Privacy Policy UX
<!-- Extracted from index.html · 24 slides -->Learn how Apple and Meta use psychology and UX to collect your data while creating an illusion of privacy.
Slide 1
Threads App
Apple vs Meta:
The Illusion of Privacy
Story Duration: 4 min
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Slide 2
I recently saw the buzz around the new Threads app so—
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Slide 3
Beat 1
—I had to give it a try!
Beat 2
The onboarding was so simple that…
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…as I breezed through the steps…
Beat 4
…I started to mindlessly tap "Next" until—
Slide 4
Beat 1
…I noticed a weird step.
?!
Beat 2
Waiiit a minute. They say
"How Threads works", but…
Beat 3
…it's almost as if they did not really want me to read
"how it works". In fact…
Beat 4
…they camouflaged tons
of links in tiny gray text.
That's super suspicious for an "onboarding screen".
Beat 5
Actually… what kind of "data" is Meta collecting here?
Slide 5
So I went back to Apple's app store and…
Slide 6
🎬 Video: https://growth.design/content/case-studies/apple-privacy-policy/apple-privacy-policy/5ebfc98510249c6db32efcee2ebb1017.mp4 poster: https://growth.design/content/case-studies/apple-privacy-policy/apple-privacy-policy/5c4ccb79f38a55c6fc1925657ef6cc1a.png
…scrolled to the "Privacy"** section**…
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Beat 1
…Health data?
…Financial Info?
…Browsing History?
…Sensitive Info?!
Beat 2
What "Other Data" is left to suck out of people at this point?
{tap}
Slide 8
Beat 1
Hold up…
Beat 2
…how long is this page?
Slide 9
Beat 1
…holy cow!
Beat 2
And that stuff is super creepy!
Beat 3
📌 Banned in Europe
Threads uses such invasive tracking that it couldn't launch in Europe.
Under Europe's data protection law, Meta needs a valid legal basis to process such personal data for ad targeting.1
Meta faces increasing uncertainty regarding its privacy policies following a recent court judgement.2
Beat 4
What's even crazier is that Meta asks for all of your life's data while—
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Beat 1
—shamelessly disguising it under a "How it works" screen.
Beat 2
📌 Framing
User decisions are influenced by the way information is presented to them3.
Framing becomes unethical when it's used to mislead or conceal the truth.
For example, the headlines:
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Beat 1
Plus, they conveniently avoid mentioning that once you click that "Join" button—
Beat 2
—they'll keep your Instagram account for ransom.
Beat 3
If you delete me…
…I'll delete him!
Mwahahaha!
Slide 12
Beat 1
Transparency Scale
Considering this, how would you rate this screen on a "Transparency scale" from 0 to 5…? (click above)
Beat 2
Yeah, I'd score it 0 or 1.
And to be clear…
Beat 3
…there's nothing wrong with a bit of data collection.
The real problem is—
Beat 4
—the more intrusive or risky an action is, the more transparent they should be about it. And yet…
Meta chose to do the opposite.
Beat 5
📌 The T.I. ratio
Your product's Transparency (T) should be at least proportional to how risky or Intrusiveness (I) it is for your users.
In other words, if you ask for very sensitive data, the right and ethical thing to do is to be upfront about it.4
Notice how Meta also used the Roach Motel5 dark pattern (with the Instagram ransom). This is another sad example of a low T.I. ratio user journey.
Beat 6
In fact, if Meta was
as transparent as they are intrusive, this screen would look more like—
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Beat 1
—this.
Beat 2
But seriously…
Even with this transparency, the data collected is**
just** too intense.
Beat 3
And expecting this from Meta is wishful thinking.
Beat 4
This brings us to the scariest and most ironic part of all this…
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Beat 1
You see, Apple invests billions in billboards and advertising to reassure people that—
Beat 2
—they are this unstoppable
"Guardian of Privacy".
Beat 3
But when you look at the data harvesting that Apple allows behind the scenes,
they are more like—
Slide 15
🎬 Video: https://growth.design/content/case-studies/apple-privacy-policy/apple-privacy-policy/f58e17548d39ee11ef027e768f506141.mp4 poster: https://growth.design/content/case-studies/apple-privacy-policy/apple-privacy-policy/726917ef081ee1e6d882fa13ba40f75e.jpg
—this guy.
Slide 16
📌 Privacy Washing
Privacy washing is the act of pretending to protect privacy (while not doing so).6
When you tap "Ask App Not To Track":
…it's not really doing what you'd expect.7
Advertisers simply use fingerprinting8 instead of Apple's traditional IDFA to map your data and send it to advertisers. And iPhone’s tracking protections are not as reliable as Apple’s ads might suggest according to investigations.9
Slide 17
Truth is, if Apple cares so much about privacy, why not—
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Beat 1
—make that obvious at the top of their App Store listings?
Beat 2
In fact, Apple's Safari Browser already uses this familiar pattern. Plus…
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Beat 1
…this would reward and incentivize good data and privacy practices.
Beat 2
📌 The Impact of Incentives
Incentives drive behaviors.10
Data privacy has been an unaccounted externality11 for a long time, so tech companies tend to neglect it.
But by making a privacy score front and center, users would be less likely to download apps with poor data practices. That would incentivize developers to respect users' privacy.
Apple could even rank apps with good practices higher in their app store if privacy were really important to them.
Slide 20
Psych Level
Customer Journey
Beat 1
So far, here are the key moments in my Threads experience...
At first I was excited to try Threads. Its onboarding was simple until…
Beat 2
… the "How Threads works" screen seemed suspicious so I—
Beat 3
—went back to Apple's app store and realized how creepy and intrusive Thread was.
Beat 4
Even worse: I realized that Apple's privacy claims were not as reliable as I thought, but—
Beat 5
—if Apple really cares about privacy that much, they could show a clear a privacy warning in their app store listings.
Beat 6
📌 Ethical Cheat sheet
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Ethics and
privacy
score:
E
Oh, and one last thing… →
Slide 21
→ links to: https://bit.ly/3gmfCfJ
Slide 22
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Slide 24
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