Tim Cook is not afraid to speak his mind. Apple’s chief executive has sent a stinging attack on rival tech giants that collect personal data for the purpose of making money.
Even if Tim Cook did not mention the companies’ names, his declaration that some of Silicon Valley’s most famous and successful companies “have built their businesses by lulling their customers into complacency about their personal information,” can easily be referred to Google and Facebook, who store vast amounts of user data and use targeted advertising.
Tim Cook was speaking by video link during EPIC’s Champions of Freedom event in Washington. He also declared that he and his team at Apple think that customers should not have to compromise security and privacy. “We can, and we must provide both in equal measure,” he declared. “We believe that people have a fundamental right to privacy. The American people demand it, the constitution demands it, morality demands it.”
“I’m speaking to you from Silicon Valley, where some of the most prominent and successful companies have built their businesses by lulling their customers into complacency about their personal information. They’re gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetise it. We think that’s wrong. And it’s not the kind of company that Apple wants to be,” Tim Cook also said.
To be mentioned that Google released its new Google Photos product, last week, at its annual I/O developers conference. This app offers users unlimited photo storage for free and also organizes images by subject, person, date and place, using landmark recognition technology. “We don’t think you should ever have to trade it for a service you think is free but actually comes at a very high cost,” Tim Cook said. “This is especially true now that we’re storing data about our health, our finances and our homes on our devices.”
“We believe the customer should be in control of their own information. You might like these so-called free services, but we don’t think they’re worth having your email, your search history and now even your family photos data mined and sold off for god knows what advertising purpose. And we think some day, customers will see this for what it is,” he concluded.
