Thread · 5 tweets · 7 Jun 2021

I've long stuck to Android because I like the UI better — but that's not tenable. On the one side you have Google giving users a big unambiguous middle finger with the likes of location settings and Chrome Sync. On the other you have Apple innovating in user protection.

I am keenly aware that Apple is problematic in more ways than one. But in the current "Know Your Master" phase of the Internet, I'll pick the one that's in the user's corner at least some of the time.

Better support for Web apps also used to be a reason to stay away from iOS, but the Web these days is basically Google's other proprietary platform. And every step they've taken this past decade has been about doubling down on that dominance. (We'll be back — but later.)

I also know that there are people inside Google who'd like this to be different. But a bunch of nice people in an ethically rudderless company don't make a difference. This requires some actual leadership, at the level of Microsoft's "Trustworthy Computing" effort.

I already got my eldest on iOS after seeing the terms Google was forcing (and there is no other word) upon under-13 users in order to access Google Classroom. (Talk about data profiteering in a pandemic…) I guess this is just the next step.