Tim Cook speaks about the importance of consumer privacy at awards dinner
- jun
- 02
Tim Cook recently gave a speech at the EPIC Champions of Freedom Awards Dinner in which he discussed encryption, privacy, and more.
Apple CEO Tim Cook recently spoke at the Champions of Freedom Awards Dinner, hosted by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), on the matters of the right to privacy and encryption, including some jabs at the way other Silicon Valley firms handle their customers' data.
As reported by TechCrunch, Cook's opening reiterated the peoples' right to privacy:
"Like many of you, we at Apple reject the idea that our customers should have to make tradeoffs between privacy and security," Cook opened. "We can, and we must provide both in equal measure. We believe that people have a fundamental right to privacy. The American people demands it, the constitution demands it, morality demands it."
Cook was harsh on other, unnamed Silicon Valley firms that use customer data for monetization purposes. While Cook didn't name Google specifically, it's easy to read the search giant's name between the lines:
"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."
Wrapping things up, Cook turned his attention towards encryption, noting that the company's views on the topic are at odds with the government:
"We think this is incredibly dangerous. We've been offering encryption tools in our products for years, and we're going to stay on that path. We think it's a critical feature for our customers who want to keep their data secure. For years we've offered encryption services like iMessage and FaceTime because we believe the contents of your text messages and your video chats is none of our business."
This isn't the first time that Cook has spoken about Apple's take on privacy. In late 2014, the Apple CEO penned a letter on the company's privacy policies. Similarly, Cook recently spoke at the White House cybersecurity summit. Judging by his recent efforts and the company's stance on the issues, Cook appears to be passionate about keeping customer data secure.
Source: TechCrunch
