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Apple opened its doors to the British daily The Independent, with guest Craig Federighi and as main subject the way Apple apprehends the data protection of its customers.
The visit was made by an unknown Apple Park laboratory where hundreds of processors, in development for future iPhone and iPad, are tested in extreme conditions. High heat (+ 110 °), intense cold (-40 °) and other operations consisting in testing the resistance of these chips and that of their Secure Enclave. If, after being tested, the security of these processors falters, there is the risk that hackers will notice and exploit this bias.
Craig Federighi insists that Apple's considerations of data confidentiality do not arrive at the final stage of product creation, it is a criterion that defines them from the start: " When we discuss product design, this is one of the first questions that are addressed: "How are we going to manage this user data? ".
The boss of the software insists on the lack of interest of Apple to establish a very detailed profile of its customers:
As a company, we have no interest in knowing everything about you, we believe that it is your device that must adapt to you, by itself. But it's still under your control, it's not Apple that learns more about you, we have no incentive to do it.
At the beginning of the month, Sundar Pichai, the boss of Google has tapped Apple, without naming, suggesting that some did not benefit from their policy that a wealthy clientele, only able to afford its products, while the question concerns everyone.
Craig Federighi rejects the idea of a policy reserved for affluent people, while slipping that the economic models chosen by each other speak for themselves. He sees Apple's approach as a more general encouragement for the entire industry: " Certainly we are trying to give the best example of what is feasible, so that people's demand for their products is higher ".
When it's not Google, it's Facebook that criticizes Apple's speech, that the company has servers dedicated to its Chinese customers in the country (Facebook is banned in China, which simplifies 'equation). Federighi disputes this reading of the situation, he argues that the most important is less the geographical location of these servers that the choice to limit the volume of data stored there and surround them with protections able to block the curious.
In the second case it goes through the encryption, in the first, by a treatment performed as much as possible on the smartphone directly. In summary, the less data you collect, the less risk there is to the operation of an intercept.
Federighi insists on the need to continue to strengthen security measures on smartphones. What often government agencies have blamed Apple. It's not just the personal aspect of this info that needs to be protected, says Apple's manager:
If I work in a central, I can have access to a system of major importance. The protection and safety of these devices is absolutely crucial to public safety.
Later, he goes back over the methods used to improve Apple's services, while using user data that is anonymous and detached from the person who created it. Apple also relies on public sources, such as image banks purchased rather than on the basis of photos of its users, in the manner of Google. Or to test its speech recognition, it drives its engine with audio podcast streams.
When it is not its own employees who contribute, always in an anonymized way, for example for the health functions of the Apple Watch.
Federighi's leitmotiv is that the best way to protect the privacy of its customers is, ultimately, to give a more central role to the smartphone and its own processing capabilities:
I think in the end, the trend will be to move more and more things to the device, because you want the intelligence to respect your personal data, but it is also available at any time, whether you have or not a good connection. You will want high performance and very low latency.
Apple does not intend to relax the pressure on this topic of confidentiality. This interview shows it and there is little doubt that during the presentation of iOS 13 early June, some of the proposed new features will demonstrate.
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