So Apple doesn’t collect as much data as Google. Maybe it should

[Commentary] Apple CEO Tim Cook’s privacy manifesto might have succeeded in placating consumers wary after the recent celebrity iCloud-hacking scandal, but it was less successful as a swipe (and a not-too-subtle one at that) at the company’s fiercest rival, Google.

Apple might want to paint Google as the poster boy for big data and ad-supported services, but that doesn’t make Google’s strategy any worse or mean that Apple isn’t picking and choosing when to follow the same strategy itself. Missing amid all the talk about the types of data Apple doesn’t collect or analyze is any reference to the benefits that derive from a company’s practice of analyzing user data. As the demands on our time and attention continue to increase -- and we start strapping computers to our bodies as well as carrying them in our pockets and messenger bags, and placing them on our desk -- we might come to appreciate Google’s approach to automation and personalization more than we ever thought we could.