Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke today at the Virtual Computers, Privacy and Data Protection conference, condemning the business model of companies like Facebook and emphasizing Apple’s commitment to advancing user privacy.
“In a time of rampant misinformation and algorithm-fueled conspiracy theories, we can no longer turn a blind eye to a theory of technology that says that every engagement is a good engagement – the longer, the better – and all with the aim of collecting the as much data as possible, “Cook said. “It is past time to stop pretending that this approach does not come at a cost – of polarization, of loss of confidence, but of violence,” he added.
Cook highlighted two recent privacy measures that Apple has taken, including privacy labels on the App Store and App Tracking Transparency, which will require applications to request permission to track users from the next iOS 14, iPadOS 14 and tvOS 14 betas. Apple says software updates will be released in early spring.
Today is Data Privacy Day, and Apple marked the occasion by sharing “A Day in the Life of Your Data,” an easy-to-understand PDF report that explains how third-party companies track user data on websites and applications, highlights the principles privacy policy and provides more details on application tracking transparency.
Cook’s remarks can be heard in this YouTube video starting at the 3:50 mark:
A complete transcript of the observations prepared by Cook is available below.
Good afternoon.
John, thanks for the generous introduction and for welcoming us today.
It is a privilege to join you – and learn from this experienced panel – on this appropriate occasion of Data Privacy Day.
Just over two years ago, together with my good friend, the late Giovanni Buttarelli, and data protection regulators from around the world, I spoke in Brussels about the emergence of an industrial data complex.
At that meeting we asked ourselves, “What kind of world do we want to live in?”
Two years later, we must now take a look at how we answered that question.
The fact is that an interconnected ecosystem of companies and data brokers, fake news providers and division salespeople, trackers and street vendors just looking to make money fast, is more present in our lives than ever before.
And it has never been as clear as this first degrades our fundamental right to privacy and, as a result, our social fabric.
As I said before, “if we accept as normal and inevitable that everything in our lives can be aggregated and sold, we lose much more than data. We lose the freedom to be human. ”
However, this is a promising new season. A time for reflection and reform. And the most concrete progress of all is thanks to many of you.
Proving that cynics and pessimists are wrong, GDPR has provided an important foundation for privacy rights worldwide, and its implementation and enforcement must continue.
But we cannot stop there. We must do more. And we are already seeing promising steps around the world, including a successful electoral initiative that strengthens consumer protection right here in California.
Together, we must send a universal and humanistic response to those who claim the users’ right to private information about what should not and will not be tolerated.
As I said in Brussels two years ago, it is certainly the time, not only for a comprehensive privacy law here in the United States, but also for global laws and new international agreements that enshrine the principles of data minimization, user knowledge, access security and data security worldwide.
At Apple, spurred on by the leadership of many of you in the privacy community, it was two years of unremitting action.
We work not only to deepen our own basic privacy principles, but also to create waves of positive change across the industry.
We have been talking, repeatedly, for strong encryption without backdoors, recognizing that security is the basis of privacy.
We set new industry standards for data minimization, user control and on-device processing for everything from location data to your contacts and photos.
While we lead the way in features that keep you healthy and well, we ensure that technologies like a blood oxygen sensor and an ECG have the peace of mind that your health data remains yours.
And last but not least, we are implementing new and powerful requirements to increase user privacy across the App Store ecosystem.
The first is a simple but revolutionary idea, which we call the nutritional privacy label.
Each application – including ours – must share its data collection and privacy practices, information that the App Store presents in a way that all users can understand and act accordingly.
The second is called Application Tracking Transparency. At its base, ATT is about giving control back to users – giving them a say in how their data is treated.
Users have been asking for this feature for a long time. We work closely with developers to give them the time and resources to implement it. And we are passionate about it because we think it has great potential to make things better for everyone.
Because ATT answers a very real problem.
Today, we launched a new article called “A day in the life of your data”. It tells the story of how the apps we use every day contain an average of six crawlers. This code usually exists to monitor and identify users in all applications, watching and recording their behavior.
In that case, what the user sees is not always what he gets.
At the moment, users may not know if the apps they use to spend time, check with friends or find a place to eat, may actually be sharing information about the photos they took, the people on their list contacts or location data that reflect where they eat, sleep or pray.
As the newspaper shows, it appears that no information is too private or personal to be monitored, monetized and aggregated in a 360-degree view of your life. The end result of all this is that you are no longer the customer, you are the product.
When ATT is in full effect, users will have a say in this type of tracking.
Some may think that sharing this degree of information is worthwhile for more targeted ads. Many others, I suspect, will not, as most appreciated when we built similar functionality in Safari, limiting web crawlers for several years.
We see the development of these types of resources and innovations centered on privacy as a central responsibility of our work. We have always done this, we will always do it.
The fact is that the ATT debate is a microcosm of a debate that we saw a long time ago – one where our point of view is very clear.
The technology does not need a large amount of personal data, grouped in dozens of websites and applications, to be successful. Advertising has existed and prospered for decades without it. And we are here today because the path of least resistance is rarely the path of wisdom.
If a company is based on deceptive users, on data exploitation, on choices that are not choices, then it does not deserve our praise. It deserves reform.
We must not look away from the big picture.
In a time of rampant misinformation and algorithm-fueled conspiracy theories, we can no longer turn a blind eye to a theory of technology that says that every engagement is a good engagement – the longer, the better – and all with the aim of collecting so much data as possible.
Many are still asking the question, “how much can we get away with?” When they need to ask themselves, “what are the consequences?”
What are the consequences of prioritizing conspiracy theories and violent incitement simply because of their high rates of engagement?
What are the consequences of not only tolerating, but rewarding content that undermines public confidence in life-saving vaccines?
What are the consequences of seeing thousands of users join extremist groups and then perpetuate an algorithm that further recommends?
It is past time to stop pretending that this approach does not come at a cost – polarization, loss of confidence, but violence.
A social dilemma cannot become a social catastrophe.
I think the past year, and certainly recent events, have brought home the risk of this for all of us – as a society and as individuals as much as anything else.
Long hours spent confined at home, the challenge of keeping children learning when schools are closed, the worry and uncertainty about what the future holds, all these things highlighted how technology can help – and how it can be used to harm .
Will the future belong to the innovations that make our lives better, more fulfilled and more humane?
Or will it belong to those tools that value our attention and exclude everything else, increasing our fears and adding extremism, to run ads that are more and more invasive than all other ambitions?
At Apple, we made our choice a long time ago.
We believe that ethical technology is the technology that works for you. It is a technology that helps you sleep, does not keep you awake. This indicates when you’ve had enough, that it gives you space to create, draw, write or learn, and not update just one more time. It’s a technology that can stay in the background when you’re taking a walk or swimming, but it’s there to warn you when your heart rate goes up or help you when you have a bad fall. And that all of this always puts privacy and security first, because nobody needs to negotiate the rights of its users to deliver a great product.
Call us naive. But we still believe that technology made by people, for people and with people’s well-being in mind, is too valuable a tool to be abandoned. We still believe that the best measure of technology is the lives it improves.
We are not perfect. We will make mistakes. This is what makes us human. But our commitment to you, now and forever, is to maintain faith in the values that have inspired our products since the beginning. Because what we share with the world is nothing without the trust that our users place in it.
For all of you who joined us today, please continue to push us forward. Continue to set high standards that put privacy first. And take new and necessary steps to reform what is broken.
We have made progress together and we must do more. Because it’s always time to be bold and brave in the service of a world where, as Giovanni Buttarelli said, technology serves people and not the other way around.
Thank you very much.
Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion on this topic, the discussion topic is located on our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors can read and follow the topic, but posts are limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.