来源：《彭博商业周刊》
原文刊登日期：2021年6月22日
Wielding influence over your inbox has long been the preserve of Google. Now Apple is getting in on the act. At its annual developer conference in early June, it unveiled tools intended to give users of its mail app greater control over what data to share. But in protecting the user, Apple is inevitably serving its own interests, too.
对你的收件箱施加影响一直是谷歌的专利。现在苹果也加入了进来。在6月初的年度开发者大会上，苹果公司推出了一些工具，旨在让其邮件应用程序的用户在分享数据方面有更大的控制权。但在保护用户的同时，苹果不可避免地也在为自己的利益服务。
Most marketing emails that you receive include images that aren’t embedded in the message, but are instead hosted remotely on another server. Opening the email pings the server to download the graphic. In doing so, it also tells the sender the time you opened the message, your approximate location, and the device you’re using, for instance. Brands and publishers use that data to gauge the effectiveness of their content.
你收到的大多数营销电子邮件都包含图片，这些图片并没有嵌入到邮件中，而是远程托管在另一台服务器上。打开电子邮件会访问第三方服务器以下载图片。在这样做的时候，就会告诉发送者你打开邮件的时间，你的大致位置，以及你使用的设备。品牌和出版商利用这些数据来衡量内容的有效性。
Apple is putting an end to that with a feature it’s calling “Mail Privacy Protection.” The tool will automatically download the data hosted remotely, whether or not you open the email, while shielding your location. The sender will therefore be told that the email has been opened, even if it hasn’t, and receive no further information about the recipient.
苹果公司推出了一项名为“邮件隐私保护”的功能来结束这一局面。该工具将自动下载远程托管的数据，无论您是否打开电子邮件，同时屏蔽您的位置。因此，发件人将被告知电子邮件已打开(即使尚未打开)，也收不到有关收件人的进一步信息。
The feature also positions Apple as a gatekeeper to your inbox. That’s meaningful: About half of all emails are opened on Apple apps, estimates analytics firm Litmus Software. Using the feature will hurt the advertisers that rely on such data. And it plugs a gap in Apple’s battle with the advertising technology industry, a market dominated by Google, Facebook and Amazon.
该功能还将苹果定位为你收件箱的看门人。这很有意义：据分析公司Litmus估计，大约一半的电子邮件是通过苹果应用程序打开的。使用该功能将损害依赖此类数据的广告商。它还填补了苹果与广告技术行业（由谷歌、Facebook和亚马逊主导的市场）争夺战的空白。
Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook’s earlier steps to stop advertisers from tracking web browsing and app usage have proved effective: Ad spending on iOS increased just 10% in the 10 weeks from March 22, while it jumped 21% on Google’s Android, according to data from marketing firm Warc. That also positions Apple more powerfully as the gateway to advertise on iPhones, should it so choose. “They’re making a big focus on privacy, but Apple is interested in the advertising market and already makes a lot of money there,” says Andy Yen, CEO of encrypted email provider Proton Technologies.
苹果首席执行官蒂姆•库克早些时候采取的阻止广告商追踪网络浏览和应用程序使用情况的措施被证明是有效的：根据市场营销公司Warc的数据，从3月22日开始的10周内，投放在iOS上的广告仅增长了10%，而投放在谷歌安卓上的广告则增长了21%。这也将苹果定位为在iPhone上做广告的门户，如果苹果选择这样做的话。加密电子邮件提供商质子科技的首席执行官Andy表示:“iPhone用户非常关注隐私问题，但苹果公司对广告市场很感兴趣，而且已经赚了很多广告费。”
The privacy initiatives do serve users. But they also help protect Apple’s $220 billion hardware business against the incursions of its rivals. While Apple makes most of its money from devices, Google and Facebook earn most of their income selling ads based on the data they collect about your interests. That means they can sell smartphones, smart speakers, or virtual reality headsets more cheaply, because the cost is subsidized by your value as an ad target. Your email is the latest front in a far larger war.
隐私倡议确实对用户有益。但也有助于保护苹果价值2200亿美元的硬件业务免受竞争对手的入侵。苹果的大部分收入来自硬件，谷歌和Facebook的大部分收入来自他们收集的用户兴趣数据的广告销售。这意味着他们可以以更低的价格销售智能手机、智能音箱或虚拟现实耳机，因为这些成本是由你作为广告目标的价值补贴的。你的电子邮件是一场更大战争的最新前线。