Apple’s new ad on privacy tells trackers to mind their own business

So why is the ad suddenly being talked about, especially when it must have Facebook’s Zuckerberg seething with rage? The ad, which interestingly has a 40-year-old cult hit, Delta 5’s ‘Mind Your Own Business’

Hyderabad: A funny look at a not-so-funny subject. That is what iPhone maker Apple’s latest advertisement on privacy is all about.

So why is the ad suddenly being talked about, especially when it must have Facebook’s Zuckerberg seething with rage? The ad, which interestingly has a 40-year-old cult hit, Delta 5’s ‘Mind Your Own Business’, playing in the background, effectively demonstrates what online tracking looks like, in a way that people can relate to and understand easily.

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The ad, by following a common man through his every day routine, highlights the ways in which the different apps he uses gather and share his data. Right from a coffee shop, where the barista jumps across the counter and starts following him, even telling the cab driver his name and date of birth, to a bank and supermarket, the number of people following him increases as each thing he does triggers more trackers. In the end, his iPhone gives him the option not to allow tracking, the much talked about feature that came along with the iOS 14.5 update, and as he clicks on it, the crowd of trackers and stalkers vanish into thin air.

The ad, which gels with Apple’s recent campaign for privacy, even locking horns with Facebook over the same, focuses in a quite smart way on the App Tracking Transparency which requires developers to request permission before they are able to track an iPhone or iPad user across apps or websites.

The ad, tech reviewers write, might look absurd but at the same time, is brilliant. Listen in to Delta 5’s lyrics, ‘Can I have a taste of your ice cream? Can I lick the crumbs from your table? Can I interfere in your crisis’…, and you will get the whole picture. That is, if the ad fails to ring all the bells.

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