Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says he tries to ‘avoid Google and Facebook’
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is not a fan of the advertising-driven models of Facebook and Google.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, on stage at C2 in Montreal
Speaking at C2 Montreal, Wozniak said that he tries to “avoid Google and Facebook” in his life, although admitted that he does use Google Calendar.
Wozniak told the audience that the reason he chooses to stay off of the two popular platforms is because of their massive data collecting operations that are used for ad targeting purposes.
“They know everything about you. You give them your data and you just click, ‘okay, i accept this.’” They own everything, they can sell it for anything, [and] we don’t get any of it.” he said. “I think the formula should be that anything they make off of advertising [from] your data that you supplied, you’re entitled to some portion of it.”
He then plugged Apple’s penchant for privacy, noting that the company he co-founded more than 40 years ago “makes its money instead off of good products.”
During the talk, Wozniak also said that he and wife only use Lyft now in light of Uber’s many scandals, although he said that he thinks both of the ride-sharing apps don’t pay their drivers enough.
“They both have problems,” he said. “They’re both becoming huge companies. But Uber, from what you read, is always a little bit worse.”