Apple CEO Tim Cook has strongly condemned business models that depend on harvesting user data, saying the priority of engagement above all leads to misinformation, mistrust and even real-world violence.
The CEO of Apple gave the opening speech on Thursday during a panel at the European Computers, Privacy & Data Protection (CPDP) conference. During his talk, he touched on a variety of issues, including Apple’s privacy efforts and the dangers of business models that depend on harvesting user data.
“Like I said before, if we normally accept that everything in our lives can be put together and sold, we lose so much more than data. We lose the freedom to be human,” Cook said.
Although Cook did not name Facebook by name, the social media giant’s business model was a clear target.
“In an era of rampant disinformation and conspiracy theories used by algorithms, we can no longer turn a blind eye to a theory of technology that says all engagement is good and the longer the better,” Cook said.
He said some consequences of these kinds of cases could undermine public confidence in life-saving vaccinations, polarization and even real-world violence perpetrated by extremist groups.
“If a business is built on deceptive users, on data mining, on choices that are not choices at all, it does not deserve our praise,” Cook said. “It deserves ridiculousness.”
The CEO also highlighted a number of ways Apple is working to protect privacy, including new labels for privacy feeds in the App Store and the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature due to its launch in the spring. Cook added that Apple was not only working to strengthen its own privacy principles, “but to create ripples of positive change in the industry.”
“At Apple, we’ve made our choice for a long time. We believe that ethical technology is technology that works for you. It’s technology that helps you sleep, and you do not keep up. It tells you if you’ve had enough, it gives you space to create, draw, write or learn, to not only refresh once more.This technology can fade into the background when you are hiking or going swimming, but there is something to warn you about “your heart rate increases or you help if you’ve had a nasty fall.” .
In addition, Cook also praised the legislation on the protection of data on the GDPR in Europe, and again called for similar legislation at the federal level in the US
In addition to Cook’s inaugural address, Jane Horvath, global privacy chief, participated in the round table as a panelist. She was asked about Apple’s privacy features and the use of Google as a primary search engine.
Horvath also reiterated that all applications, including Apple’s own, must comply with the company’s privacy policy. However, when it comes to advertising, Apple does not use the IDFA. Instead, it uses a much more private advertising network. In search, Horvath said Google is the most popular search engine, but added that Apple supports alternatives such as DuckDuckGo and Ecosia.
Cook’s speech comes at a point of increasing tension between Apple and Facebook, specifically over the above tracking feature. Facebook offered full-page newspaper ads and used other tactics to criticize the feature. And shortly before Cook’s speech on Thursday, a report indicated that Facebook intends to take its fight against Apple to court with an antitrust lawsuit.