Samsung just changed the game
Samsung really wants to lure iPhone users over to the other side. “If you’re an iPhone user who may be due for an upgrade,” its new lure teases, “here’s a list of 25 reasons to make the switch to Samsung this time around.” It is 25 because this is all about the Galaxy S25. And while the new phone is the closest Android contender to iPhone’s security and privacy we have seen, there’s one major risk that home and business iPhone users need to understand before they switch.
Has Samsung’s Galaxy S25 really “seized Apple’s privacy crown with new measures,” having made “privacy the main focus for users,” as one new report suggests. It has certainly pushed the AI envelope much further than iPhone 16, even with new updates promised with iOS 18.3 and beyond. Samsung is pushing compelling consumer offers as well as “special offers, volume pricing, bulk trade-in opportunities and free shipping” for business buyers.
But the Galaxy S25 has also cemented an issue I have raised before — one at the heart of the AI offerings that have quickly become the predominant differentiator across flagships. Samsung and Google have never been more aligned than with the launch of the Galaxy S25. Despite Samsung’s Galaxy AI hard-sell over the last year, it’s Google that is powering the most significant AI advances on the new device. And when it comes to security and privacy, that really matters.
Last year when Apple first touted its “groundbreaking” private cloud compute (PCC), I commented that “Samsung phones carry Gemini as well — that means the offerings are not fully under its control. And that is the difference the company needs to address as it responds to Apple… There’s nothing to suggest an answer to Apple’s PCC is waiting in the wings.” That was before any detail on the Galaxy S25, which has gone further to mix the Google and Samsung AI offerings.
At that time, Samsung was fully in its hybrid AI mode. Sensitive AI tasks were device only, other more complex tasks relied on Galaxy AI in the cloud. And then Apple did two things to move the needle. First, its PCC offering was a game-changer when it comes to provable levels of cloud AI security, with Apple’s end-to-end control protecting and anonymizing user data. Apple also set a new bar for transparency when prompts trigger off-device, third-party activity.
Samsung has moved since then, and on-device privacy is emphasized with the new Galaxy S25. The phone’s “Personal Data Engine combines and processes your primary data and provides tailored suggestions. It encrypts this data and saves it on your device with Knox Vault, making it inaccessible to anyone else,” while users can “decide where to process data for select features, either on your device or in the cloud.”
It’s notable that Samsung’s “25 reasons to switch” lists out these new security features. And that includes a nod to business users grappling with new AI threats. “You can provide your team with game-changing AI features while maintaining control,” it says. “With Samsung Account for Business, you can enable and disable specific Galaxy AI features across one phone or your entire device fleet from an easy-to-use management system.”
In addition, there is Samsung’s own password manager, a privacy dashboard to “monitor which apps can access your camera, mic, location and contacts, and Private Share — a secure file-sharing technology built on the blockchain [which] lets you set time limits and expiration dates on shared files, with no screenshots or reshares allowed.” Plus of course, the usual multiyear security updates, biometric device security and theft protection.
But the point on AI data leakage still holds. In my view, Apple has set a bar with PCC that Samsung — in particular — should address. And there’s another challenge given the new level of on-device collaboration with Google and Gemini, which — rightly or wrongly — is always going to raise eyebrows when it comes to data security versus Apple’s ecosystem.
Last week, I reported on a new report from Harmonic Security that warned of the “significant risks related to data security” that comes from using Generative AI in the workplace. “Organizations risk losing their competitive edge if they expose sensitive data. Yet at the same time, they also risk losing out if they don’t adopt GenAl and fall behind.”
Like it or not, this is the next big thing that will dominate device security. It’s a user playground today, but that won’t last. We’re on the cusp of a wake-up call when the reality of fairly open LLMs being tasked with producing competitive assessments and corporate strategy decks fully hits home. And in a world where we see headlines such as “opting out of Gmail’s Gemini AI summaries is a mess — here’s how to do it, we think,” it’s not hard to see the problem that’s about to hit.
“Switching your phone brand of choice isn’t as difficult as you might think or as time-consuming as it used to be,” Samsung tells iPhone users. “Free services like Samsung Smart Switch handle all the leg work, and virtually all top business and consumer apps support both major platforms. As a result, replacing an iPhone with a Samsung Galaxy device is just as seamless as upgrading from an older Galaxy device to the newest Galaxy S25 Seriesor Galaxy Z Fold6.”
Samsung’s Galaxy S25 is a great device, and it does genuinely raise the bar on smartphone AI. But for home and business users, the fact this is a device that’s all about AI has come too soon for its buyers to fully understand how to stay AI-safe, or even the questions they should ask. All that should be factored in to any decision to switch.