Why Apple and Microsoft Are Healthier Than Facebook
&quot;In reality, Apple collects <i>more</i> information about its customers than Facebook because it offers more products and services.&quot;<p>Was&#x2F;is all that data collection necessary?<p>Did they (or Microsoft) make decisions about data collection based on perceived competition from Facebook or Google.<p>Considering e.g. how ads were integrated into MS software products (e.g. the &quot;free&quot; versions of Office software that appeared a number of years ago) I think the answer is yes, at least for MS.<p>I believe all these companies (AAPL, MS, FB, GOOG, AMZN, a few others) react to each other and often adjust their short-term and long-term goals accordingly, even when they might be thought <i>not</i> to be competing.