Apple CEO Tim Cook strongly condemned business models based on user data collection, saying that prioritizing engagement above all leads to misinformation, mistrust, and even real-world violence.
Apple’s chief executive delivered the opening speech during a panel at the European IT, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) conference on Thursday. During his talk, he addressed a number of issues, including Apple’s privacy efforts and the dangers of business models that depend on users ’data collection.
“Like I said before, if we normally accept that everything in our lives can be added and sold, then we lose a lot more than data. We lose the freedom to be human,” Cook said.
While Cook didn’t mention Facebook by name, the social media giant’s business model was a clear goal.
“In a time of rampant misinformation and conspiracy theories played by algorithms, we can no longer keep our eyes open to a technology theory that says any compromise is good and the longer the better,” Cook said.
He said some of the consequences of such business could be undermining public confidence in life-saving vaccinations, polarization and even real-world violence perpetrated by extremist groups.
“If a company relies on misleading users, on data mining, on options that are no choice, it doesn’t deserve our praise,” Cook said. “He deserves contempt.”
The CEO also highlighted some of the ways Apple is working to protect privacy, including new privacy nutrition labels in the App Store and the application tracking transparency (ATT) feature that will be released in the spring . Cook added that Apple has worked not only to strengthen its own privacy principles, “but to create waves of positive change across the industry.”
“At Apple, we made our choice a long time ago. We believe that ethical technology is a technology that works for you. It’s a technology that helps you sleep, it doesn’t keep you alert. It tells you when you’ve had enough , gives you space to create, draw, write or learn, not just cool off once again.It is a technology that can disappear in the background when you go hiking or swimming, but there is to warn you when the pace “Cardiac increases or help you when you’ve had a nasty fall. And with all that, it’s always privacy and security, because no one has to change the rights of their users to deliver a fantastic product,” Cook said.
In addition, Cook also praised European data protection legislation and again called for similar legislation at the federal level in the US.
In addition to Cook’s opening speech, Jane Horvath, Apple’s head of global privacy, participated in the roundtable as a speaker. He was asked questions about Apple’s privacy features and Google’s use of the company as its primary search engine.
Horvath also reiterated that all applications, including Apple’s own, must comply with the company’s privacy policies. However, when it comes to advertising, Apple does not use IDFA. Instead, it uses a much more private advertising network. As for search, Horvath said Google is the most popular search engine, but added that Apple supports alternatives like DuckDuckGo and Ecosia.
Cook’s speech reaches a point of growing tension between Apple and Facebook, specifically about the aforementioned tracking feature. Facebook has posted newspaper ads across the page and used other tactics to criticize the feature. And, shortly before Cook’s speech on Thursday, a report indicated that Facebook might be planning to take its battle with Apple to court with an antitrust lawsuit.