Now you're just arguing degrees of evilness. My point here is not to defend Apple, they may well be evil to the core, but to point out the error in O'Reilly's defense of Google. Google isn't just a privacy policy and a SAAS company.
As a continued tangent though, let's talk about Apple's culpability and how much blame they deserve.
"they deserve the most blame, esp. since they have the most leverage"
My problem with this is you're assuming Apple hasn't used any leverage positively here which may be true but may not, we've seen indications that they are doing more but also that might just be PR window dressing.
Let's see a real "apples to Apple" comparison side by side with other major vendors.
And by all means let's condemn then if they are worse then others.
OTOH if it turns out that Apple is, relatively speaking, the gold standard and is doing the most to improve conditions then it might turn out they are deserving of praise.
As a continued tangent though, let's talk about Apple's culpability and how much blame they deserve.
"they deserve the most blame, esp. since they have the most leverage"
My problem with this is you're assuming Apple hasn't used any leverage positively here which may be true but may not, we've seen indications that they are doing more but also that might just be PR window dressing.
Let's see a real "apples to Apple" comparison side by side with other major vendors.
And by all means let's condemn then if they are worse then others.
OTOH if it turns out that Apple is, relatively speaking, the gold standard and is doing the most to improve conditions then it might turn out they are deserving of praise.
Either way Tim O'Reilly is wrong.