This is an advertisement of the world-famous brand Apple and the new iPhone X (pronounced iPhone ten), which has been introduced to the public just recently and will be available to purchase in November 2017.
The advertisement design itself is simple yet quite appealing to the eye by stylish use of detail arrangement in the picture. The background is plain white and the iPhone catches the attention by contrast of colors. On the phone screen, the consumer cannot see anything but the pallet of mixed bright colors, which is something mysterious in a way. The advertisement does not tell us a lot about the new technology right away, the only difference that every iPhone user can see is the new shape and missing signature home button at the bottom of the screen which makes it stand out from previous models.
The advertisement targets young, modern, and tech-savvy people, who can afford the phone priced above average. By “Say hello to the future” slogan, Apple points out that the new iPhone X uses the newest technologies and manifests that it is the phone of the future, which distinguishes the product from all other brands. Moreover, from the fine detailing seen on the picture (metal details on the sides of the product as well as high-resolution touchscreen display), it is easy to guess that the new product will be quite costly.
In my culture jammed version of the advertisement I have changed the phrase “Say hello to the future” to “Say goodbye to the privacy” to highlight one of the major concerns with the IPhone’s leading technologies, which are privacy and safety issues.
According to a few researches, Apple iPhones have technical capabilities to spy on their users by retrieving all the private information stored on Apple devices through iCloud (virtual data storage). There are several ways Apple can access their customers’ devices through the microphone, camera and location services; making not only the company but hackers able to watch any iPhone user in real time. Moreover, there are evidences of the private information stored on IPhones being aquired and used by intelligent services without customers’ permision. Even though, it seems to be safer to allow secret services to access any data for the safety/anti-terror reasons, it still violates and intervenes with personal privacy.
Furthermore, the new Face ID technology used on IPhone X, which allows its’ users to unlock the phone by just looking at the screen, can create serious safety issues. The new face recognition technology scans the users’ face, meaning that the phone will be potentially scanning for new faces while it is on at anytime. Human face can tell a lot about the person, his or her age, emotions and even personality. The Face ID could analyze people around the phone allowing Apple, governments and hackers watch people who are around the phone anytime. The only solution to protect consumers from these dangerous technologies is to turn off all the location services, Face ID, SIRI as well as deny any access to the camera or the microphone by any applications on Apple devices.
To conclude, privacy and personal safety is something unbelievable, but evidence proves that users should be careful with storing their personal data. It is a serious issue for the society, which may evolve in the future. The question arises: “Should consumers really say hello to this kind of future?”
References:
Lomas, N. (2017, Sep 13). iPhone X’s raises security and privacy questions [Web log Post]. Retrieved from: https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/13/iphone-xs-face-id-raises-security-and-privacy-questions/
Smith, C. (2017, June 6). Apple might be helping governments spy on users in real time [Web log Post]. Retrieved from: http://bgr.com/2017/06/06/apple-spying-on-iphone-users/