Tim Cook, defender of privacy.
Advertisement
The discussion briefly touched on Apple’s rumored self-driving auto, which is said to rival Tesla, but Cook gave nothing away simply stating that he had read all of the news reports but Apple is focused on its existing line of products.
National security always matters, obviously.
Apple is playing up its commitment to user privacy. And so we think that our customers want us to help them keep their data safe…. We think customers are fine with that.
This respect for privacy, which he has previously called an issue of morality, extends to his dealings with national security agencies. “Many customers want us to recommend an app”.
Not only that users are concerned about a company’s ability to protect their data from third party attacks or third party access, but they are also becoming concerned on the ways companies, such as Apple, are using their personal data. And so a back door is a nonstarter. “Plenty of colleagues at Apple know I’m gay, and it doesn’t seem to make a difference in the way they treat me”, he wrote. But my own view is everyone’s coming around to a few core tenets. He believes that everyone, including the government, is now realizing that encryption is required. It’s easy for Cook to sound righteous.
Cook noted that development of the OS X and iOS operating systems have been inspired by each other, and Apple’s Continuity features help users transition between the different devices. In his view, Apple’s partnerships with companies like IBM, Cisco and Box are a point of strength, since those companies can use their expertise in particular industries to enhance Apple’s products. And that our customers are not our products.
Apple also explained that it does not collect every “detail about your life”. That’s just not the business that we are in. There was a thinly-veiled criticism of Google in this.
Advertisement
Earlier this year, Cupertino found itself on the bad side of the US Department of Justice when it explained that it was technically impossible to provide them with real-time access to iMessages. According to Cook, his company is just getting started. In this interview, he described it as “a fundamental human right”. “And that responsibility has grown markedly in the last couple of decades or so, as government has found it more hard to move forward or get as much done that would please the people”.
