Apple CEO Tim Cook: Privacy is ‘one of the top issues of the century’

Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke this morning at the Virtual Computers, Privacy and Data Protection conference, where he discussed Facebook’s business model and the imminent application of Application Tracking Transparency by Apple and later he elaborated on some of his speeches in an interview with Fast Company.

Cook said that privacy is “one of the main issues of the century” and that it is important to put “deep thought” into it to find out how to “leave something for the next generation that is much better than the current situation.” Cook said that privacy “must be considered” as climate change, another major problem that the world is facing.

On why people should care about their privacy, even when there is nothing to hide, Cook said he tries to make people think about living in a world of constant surveillance, something Apple did this morning with the release of a document. called “A day in the life of your data”, which details how third-party companies track user data across websites and applications.

“What changes do you make in your own behavior? What do you do less? What don’t you do more? What don’t you get so curious about if you know that every time you’re on the web, looking at different things, exploring different things, will you end up restricting yourself more and more and more and more? This kind of world is not a world that any of us should aspire to.

“And then I think most people, when they think like that … start thinking quickly about, ‘Well, what am I looking for? I look for this and that. I really don’t want people to know that I’m’ looking for this and that, because I’m just curious about what it is “or what it is. So, it is this change in behavior that happens that is one of the things that deeply concern me, and I think everyone should be concerned with that. .

Cook also pointed out that not all “Big Tech” companies are the same and that he is concerned with the “general categorization” of giving big companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple a single label. “I try to encourage people to think deeper than that and think about the companies themselves and their business models and how they behave, and so on – what are their values,” he said.

Cook was asked whether he thinks artificial intelligence is a threat and how it ranks compared to privacy, and he said that “both” can be used negatively and can be “augmented by technology”. Cook said ethical AI and privacy and ethical data collection are important issues that “need to be addressed”.

Fast CompanyCook’s full interview also covers technology and extremism, privacy legislation and regulation, and the future of privacy in technology, and is well worth reading.