There is something that is often not really convincing in Apple commercials, at least in my opinion. I mean, technically they’re made very well, they’re made by people who know how to make them. About this, nothing to blame.

But if I meditate about the message they want to send me, I often find a misalignment from reality, like a subtle mismatch. I come across something that doesn’t add up to me. Today, as in the recent past.

Let’s take what’s often appearing on (italian) television, in these hot summer days (what I find online, to be honest, is a slightly different version from what I’ve seen several times on television, but the concept is the same).

I quote the words of the MacRumors website, in the article describing the commercial

In the spot, security cameras are positioned as pesky birds and bats, hovering around smartphone users as they browse the web. The cameras are everywhere, representing website trackers. Much of the ad is focused on non-iPhone users, but toward the end, iPhone users opens up Safari and all the creepy cameras explode in mid-air.

Definitively, there’s something wrong here. The message I get is that if I want to surf away from prying eyes I have to buy an iPhone and use Safari. Yes, I have to spend a not insignificant amount, but I gain in security. Which is an important thing. Something that is probably priceless.

In my opinion, here there is some truth mixed with some false, or at least some questionable arguments. So true that security is important, but are we certain that the only way to navigate safely is through an expensive object like an iPhone? Is the only way to launch Safari to kill all the spy birds in the video (really disturbing, no doubt about it)?

Let’s see. Now, according to the nordvpn site, among the thirteen safest browsers for privacy in 2024, Safari is only in ninth place, overtaken by browsers such as Vivaldi, Brave, Firefox. All browsers – this is my main point – that can easily be installed on an Android device, even those that cost around a fifth of a new iPhone. And the bad birds, taken for true the nordvpn ranking, should fall to the ground even further!

I have been using Vivaldi for a long time (since 2020, to be precise), both for desktop and for smartphones and tablets. I’m quite happy with it, so much so that I’ve talked about it many times in this blog.

But if you don’t like Vivaldi, you can also use Brave or Firefox, depending on your tastes. And of course you can move down the rankings to reach Safari, if you want. The point is, you do not automatically gain security by relying on one brand rather than another, even though in some cases they adopt – mainly to make a good impression to customers – almost virtuous behaviour. We gain security by understanding what we are doing and becoming curious about what our data does on the big internet, who can see it and how they can do it. Then, decide to trust in certain cases, and less in others.

In a universe in accelerating expansion, where everything changes day by day, it is important that we become aware of what we do and think deeply about our habits on Internet, so as to grant our data only to those we really want. If we maintain a static behavior (for example, I use Chrome because I find it already installed, it is convenient and everybody else uses it), we can miss the opportunity to move and understand that, if our data and browsing habits are not important for us, for someone else they have much value. For someone else they are money, a value that we grant (often) without having a the real intention to do so.

The news, which the Apple commercial obviously forget to tell you, is that we can shoot down those ugly control birds without rushing to buy something different from what we have. But, just by becoming curiois, and downloading (often, for free) software other than the one we are now (lazily) using.

Just, think about it.