Quartz:

When you install an app on an Android smartphone or tablet, it asks for access to data such as your location or address book. If you say no, you can’t install the app.

Apple handles things differently. On its mobile operating system, iOS, apps don’t ask permission when they’re installed. Instead, iOS takes some permissions as a given—internet access for instance—but for more sensitive data, such as your photos or location, the app has to ask for access when you use it. That more closely relates the decision to grant access to the reason for asking for it.

That there should be a difference between Android and iOS, which between them control 96.3% of the smartphone market, isn’t surprising. They have different overarching philosophies: Android is free for any smartphone maker to use while iOS is for iPhones only. Developers can freely upload their apps to the Google Play Store while Apple has tight gatekeeping. Android is easily customized; iOS is not.

But both Apple and Google are making big changes to the nuts and bolts of how permissions work, and they’re moving in opposite directions: While Apple is making it harder for apps to get access to your data, Google is making it easier. Most users may not notice; compared to the design, functionality, choice of apps, and price, privacy often comes last in people’s decisions about which phone to use. But these little-noticed details will have a profound impact on how widely your data are shared with other companies.

I’m a longtime fan of Apple products. But I am not immune to change. Three things keep me from experimenting with Android. First, there’s simple aesthetics. Apple keeps making products I like, so I’ve got no reason to drift.

Second, there’s the approach to privacy that’s the center of the linked article. It’s a small thing, perhaps, but I prefer Apple’s more granular approach.

And last, but certainly not least, there’s the issue of malware. Even the most neutral of security blogs make the case that device fragmentation is a security issue for Android. Apple controlling the hardware and software makes all the difference.