When Apple announced in June that it would begin requiring applications to ask permission before tracking users, it was applauded by privacy advocates. The idea was that if you wanted to collect and monetize the personal information of the people who use your apps, you can just be transparent and ask first.
In conjunction with the recent requirement that apps provide detailed information about the data they collect and share, the next feature of iOS 14 is a positive step if you care about protecting privacy. Of course, it will be more difficult for digital advertising platforms like Facebook to target ads to users based on their online activities, but it is difficult to argue that transparency is a bad thing.
This does not mean that Facebook has not tried. The company ran two full-page print ads in three major newspapers, accusing Apple of being against small businesses and a threat to “free Internet”. I’ve already written about the ads and the general response to them, so I’m not going to address that here.
In the midst of the battle between Facebook and Apple for privacy, it would have been easy to lose what I consider to be a much more important part of the story. I think the response from Apple CEO Tim Cook is the most interesting aspect and is an example for every leader. In fact, I think your answer is perhaps the best example of emotional intelligence I’ve ever seen.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize your emotional reaction to something, evaluate the thoughts that led to those emotions, and make intentional choices about how you respond. People with low emotional intelligence tend to skip this intermediate stage and, instead, respond from their emotions, often to the detriment of themselves and the people who depend on them.
This goes for CEOs as well as anyone else. In fact, it can be even more difficult to display emotional intelligence when your company is being publicly attacked. It doesn’t matter if you run a huge company that directly affects the lives of billions of people, it would be easy to get angry and frustrated when a competitor tries so hard to misrepresent your position and actions.
In that case, the answer did not come from a corporate public relations statement. It was not tweeted from a generic, faceless corporate account. He was the CEO of the most valuable company on the planet, Apple, responding directly to an attack by another multi-billion dollar company, Facebook, whose founder and CEO is the world’s fifth richest person.
We’ve seen CEOs respond on Twitter before. It doesn’t always go well. Sometimes it just makes the situation worse.
Cook, on the other hand, is known for being an extremely reserved and withdrawn communicator. He does not usually get involved in public discussions.
No offense to Cook, but his public statements are generally quite common. His Twitter account, in particular, is a series of posts about Apple products, his commitment to various causes or other company announcements. When Cook says, “Facebook can continue to track users on apps and websites,” he just needs to “ask for their permission first”, that’s the most you’ll get.
The fact that he got involved in responding to Facebook shows us how important privacy really is for Apple. It is important enough for the CEO to clarify things.
Most importantly, however, it is a perfect model of how to respond when you are under attack. Here’s why:
Facebook used almost 1,000 words between the two ads and spent a lot of money to get them in front of people. He created a doomsday scenario in which small businesses – and the Internet as we know it – will collapse under the weight of Apple’s move to iOS 14. He painted the picture of a big bad company that was about to force users to make a change that would be bad for everyone.
Cook, on the other hand, used only 47 words to answer. He did this on a free social media platform where, as of the time of this writing, he received “likes” more than 110,000 times.
In that short answer, he was not angry or argumentative. He didn’t insult anyone, and he didn’t dramatize anything. Instead, he responded personally, stated what Apple believed, explained why this is important to users, and clarified what would really change. That is exactly how every leader must respond when under attack.