Apple encourages "privacy protections," said CEO Tim Cook

Apple CEO Tim Cook said his company was not trying to argue with tech rivals for privacy, nor to make it a luxury product, as some have suggested.

A few hours after the introduction "Connect with Apple"A new device authentication option," Cook rejected the idea that privacy protections were intended to hinder Facebook or Google, two companies recently criticized for committing errors in data management. their users.

Cook specifically noted during the unveiling of the feature at WWDC 2019 on Monday that connections from Facebook and Google are used to track people online, but with the new tool, you can use your iOS device to authenticate your login information.

"You know, we're not really targeting anyone," Cook said in an interview with Norah O Donnell of CBS News. "We are focused on the user, and the user wants to be able to browse many properties on the web without being under surveillance.

"We are advancing the protections of privacy, and I actually think it's a very reasonable request for people," he said.

(Disclosure: CBS News is owned by CBS, the parent company of CNET.)

Discussions between Apple and Google and Facebook began in February, when Apple temporarily withdrew business certificates – digital signatures that tech giants were using to run software on iPhone and iPad, closing internal applications of Google employees and Facebook workers.

Apple took these steps after learning that Facebook had taken advantage of an Apple program that allows companies to design apps for private use, as well as test apps before they are available. Meanwhile, Google has been caught for an app called Screenwise Meter, which invited outside users to earn business gift cards in exchange for letting Google monitor and analyze their data.

Mr. Cook also said that more and more users are becoming aware of privacy and lack of danger.

"This is not good for our country," Cook told CBS News. "You can imagine an environment where everyone starts to think that there is no privacy, and if there is none, your freedom to do so is something you can not do without. Expression collapses because now you are going to think of everyone, you will know everything you do. "

"This is not good for our country, not good for democracy."

Cook's interview comes after the recent involvement of Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who says that Apple is turning privacy into a "luxury good."

Apple has taken leading measures in favor of user privacy. In 2016, for example, he refused to change his software so that the FBI could access an iPhone 5C related to the terrorist incident in San Bernardino, arguing that this change would create a back door to all other iPhones. Last year, he unveiled features for his Safari browser, which could disable tracking tools used by Facebook and Twitter to monitor surfing habits of users.

Representatives from Google and Facebook have not responded to requests for comments.

More O & # 39; Donnell interview with Tim Cook will be broadcast in the June 4 issue of CBS Evening News.