it's been a decades-long debate between
apple enthusiasts and
well pretty much everyone else is the
iphone or the samsung phone superior is
the google pixel any good what about
blackberry
rest in peace
[Music]
you could come at this question from a
hundred different angles but today we're
going to look at the differences between
privacy and security on apple ios
devices and all the different
android-based devices
hey guys it's josh from all things
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before i was an iphone user i had one of
those awesome nokia brick phones that i
honestly kind of miss you know i think
they're making a comeback now aren't
they
anyway i recognize that i might have a
bit of a bias in this particular debate
since i've never owned a quality android
phone so i've brought in pete matheson a
fellow tech youtuber who's some great
experience on the android side and lots
of videos about it on his youtube
channel i also want to give a shout out
to the shared security podcast who did
an episode on this very topic last month
both pete's youtube channel and this
particular podcast episode are linked in
the description below if you want to
learn more oh and if you're one of those
people that won't be happy with any
option that involves apple google or any
other big tech company stick around to
the end of the video because i have a
little something for you as well okay to
properly compare the security and
privacy native to both ios and android
devices we're going to cover four
specific areas of concern the operating
system user tracking native apps and the
physical devices themselves
so let's start at the beginning with the
operating system
the operating system also known as the
os
is the software that runs or operates
everything on your device if you don't
have an os your phone won't boot up and
function now there are a lot of things
that can be said here but when it comes
to your privacy and security there's one
primary principle at play here the more
links that there are in a chain the more
opportunities there are to introduce a
weak link
what do i mean by that well what apple
introduced with its iphone back in 2007
was an integration of hardware and
software which is something that we tend
to take for granted nowadays this native
integration allows for a lot more
control which i can admit that can be
both good and frustrating but as far as
security and privacy is concerned most
people refer to what apple is built as a
walled garden that tight control over
the ios and its security is in stark
contrast to android phones whose
operating systems are often three levels
deep first you have the foundation of
the android os followed by the phone's
manufacturer's configuration of that os
which could be
samsung oneplus motorola any of those
others and finally there's sometimes
even a layer from the network provider
like verizon virgin mobile etc
each layer adds a bit of complexity and
vulnerability to the operating system
not to mention a lot of other variables
that pete even shared with me whereas on
android it's very very different from a
platform platform some of the phones
even have adverts embedded within the
system itself at the operating system
level so as you're scrolling through
settings you're scrolling through
adverts the last thing i'll add in
regard to the operating system is the
frequency of security patches and
updates in this case you actually want
updates to happen as soon as they need
to and here too even for pete's google
pixel phone the monthly os updates
aren't very reliable and even though
those monthly updates have come out
every single month they've actually
delayed some of them for whatever reason
whereas i checked and when i picked up
my iphone 13 pro
the number of updates i've had since
launch day like minor updates major
updates new features and mostly
obviously bug fixes they just seem to be
a lot more on top of releasing those
smaller bug fixes to fix things okay so
that's the operating system what about
user tracking
unfortunately the features that make
modern smartphones so attractive are
exactly the same ones that make them
scary when seen from the lens
of personal privacy you've got an
alarmingly accurate gps sensor
a camera and a microphone that can watch
and listen to you wherever you're at and
of course so much data about how and
where you use your device
so how does apple's ios compare to
android in terms of user tracking well
as far as third-party apps are concerned
apple has what it calls an app sandbox
which limits what kind of data apps can
access and what parts of the root system
it can use if you use an iphone you've
also probably seen those pop-ups asking
if you want to allow an app to use your
camera
your location or even just track you
across devices
and unless it's absolutely necessary for
the operation of the app your answer
should usually be no what about android
well pete shared with me that a privacy
sandbox is coming but with google
there's a bit of a conflict of interest
google have announced they are making
similar changes to that that apple are
making now but they're implementing it
in two years time because of course
google sits on both sides of the fence
that fence he's referring to is the
divide between the consumers who buy
their phones and the advertisers who
make up the bulk of google's revenue
it's really a difficult balancing act i
will add that apple still has that kind
of balancing act as well but for them
it's more on the regulatory side last
year there was a bit of a dust up when
apple quietly announced that they would
start scanning the images uploaded to
icloud to monitor for child sexual abuse
material i did a whole video about it
that you can watch right here but in the
end apple delayed that scanning update
because of the vocal backlash from
privacy advocates all that to say
when using either ios or android i think
it's best to simply assume that there is
some form of tracking that is or will
start happening soon and before you
start talking trash about apple or
google just remember that even if you
use the dumbest of dumb phones a network
provider can still triangulate your
position with or without gps
capabilities the best thing you can do
is just make sure that you're only
giving permission for apps to use
specific types of data or specific parts
of your phone when they absolutely need
it
continuing on we're looking at text
messages sent on ios versus android
now to start you need to understand that
the old school sms text message is not
and never has been never will be
encrypted anything sent via sms text
message even on a modern app or android
device is not private however
each service has its own closed off
network that offers end-to-end encrypted
messaging for apple that's imessage for
android well
actually it's different depending on the
manufacturer but they do have encrypted
messaging it's that blue chat bubble
versus the green chat bubble and the one
you use often depends on how many of
your friends and family are using apple
or android devices listen here's my two
cents i use the native text message
feature on my phone every day for all
kinds of regular communication but when
it comes to
anything sensitive or truly personal i
prefer to skip ios and android
altogether in favor of using a
third-party app like signal it offers
always-on encryption and you might be
surprised how many of your friends and
family already have a signal account
the final piece of this puzzle is the
device itself when you're comparing ios
and android you have to take into
account what i said earlier
apple controls everything whereas
android does not and in this case the
advantage actually might lean toward
android here as pete says it's very
tempting when you see like the latest
you know i've got the s22 um ultra here
and there's like three lenses on it
there's like a hundred times ridiculous
zoom on it there's these features you
just don't see on the apple platform
until maybe
two three four years time when apple
gets to make kind of their version their
improved version that works very well
and pete's right if you want
cutting-edge devices with the latest
features you definitely go with android
since apple's going to take their time
perfecting those features before it gets
released onto an iphone but here's
another aspect of this debate that most
people don't talk about when i was
living in china one of the security
measures that got put in place were
these device checks that would happen
all the time police would stop us on the
side of the road and plug these devices
into our phones that researchers later
found would just scan the phone for
certain types of material and then i was
always worried that they were able to
implant some kind of tracker although i
know that might be a little bit paranoid
the point is this it doesn't matter how
secure or private your actual hardware
of the phone is
if you get stopped
by police or by somebody on the street
and forced to unlock your phone in this
case when they plugged in the phone i
would be required to press that button
that says i trust this device i had no
choice at that point all bets are off
and here's where i want to make the most
important point for this video in the
middle of this debate between ios and
android i think the most important thing
you need to remember is that honestly
it really doesn't matter yes i think
that apple offers a few advantages over
android but at the end of the day if
you're relying on your mobile devices so
much that you're storing sensitive data
intimate pictures or access to all of
your financial data then you're creating
a risk that supersedes which operating
system you use and that includes
alternative operating systems speaking
of alternatives what if you're looking
at both android and ios and thinking to
yourself hey as long as apple and google
have control over these operating
systems i'll never trust any claim of
privacy i hear you i really do i may be
comfortable with an apple phone but that
doesn't mean that you need to be and if
that's the case you do have some options
including
linux based systems like tizen or i
think it's teasin i'm not sure and pure
os or even d googled android projects
like graphene os which i know has gained
in popularity recently
keep in mind what you may gain in terms
of privacy by using these alternative
operating systems you also lose in terms
of support sometimes app availability
and ease of installation and general use
so what do you think are you sticking
with ios android are you going to take
that leap into the crazy world of
alternative mobile operating systems
leave a comment down below with your
answer and don't just tell me which one
you've got to tell me why you made that
choice