In the lead-up to the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Apple has expertly trolled its tech competitors Amazon and Google with a 13-storey tall billboard.
The conference is being held at the Las Vegas Convention Centre and Apple’s billboard is plastered on the side of a hotel which directly overlooks the centre.
It reads: “What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone”, with the URL to Apple’s privacy website, a play on “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”.
Naturally, social media users have been sharing their thoughts on the move.
Apple never shows up at CES, so I can’t say I saw this coming. pic.twitter.com/8jjiBSEu7z
— Chris Velazco (@chrisvelazco) January 4, 2019
Ahead of #CES, Apple puts up billboard touting iPhone #security https://t.co/ZTgqJrz8Hg via @BGR pic.twitter.com/WSZon1Bqsh
— Peter Tran (@ptrancyber) January 6, 2019
Do you believe them?
Apple plasters privacy ad on billboard near Las #Vegas Convention Center ahead of #CES
https://t.co/XeucNTSMWy#ces2019 pic.twitter.com/jpkpj1y8vh— A Devoted Yogi (@ADevotedYogi) January 6, 2019
Apple does not participate in the CES conference.
The billboard is a swipe at the ongoing issue in the tech industry of consumer privacy and data.
Google specifically has found itself in a world of strife in recent months, with the closure of its social platform Google Plus following a spate of data leaks and breaches.
In mid-December, Google pulled the closure of Google+ forward by four months thanks to a major data leak.
While Google initially linked the closure of Google+ to “very low consumer usage”, the tech giant has now admitted some users have been impacted by a bug in a software update; leading to the decision to shut Google+ down four months early.
In a statement posted to Google’s blog, G Suite VP of product management David Thacker said: “We’ve recently determined that some users were impacted by a software update introduced in November that contained a bug affecting a Google+ API.
“We discovered this bug as part of our standard and ongoing testing procedures and fixed it within a week of it being introduced.
“With the discovery of this new bug, we have decided to expedite the shut-down of all Google+ APIs; this will occur within the next 90 days.
“In addition, we have also decided to accelerate the sunsetting of consumer Google+ from August 2019 to April 2019.
