Apple CEO Tim Cook on data privacy, immigration and speaking



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Apple CEO Tim Cook is not afraid to speak on issues ranging from data privacy and immigration to human rights and to l & # 39; environment.

Cook said Monday to the 2018 Fortune CEO Conference Initiative in San Francisco that the technology giant is ready to take a stand on sensitive political and business topics, as long as they are relevant to the beliefs and ideals of the company.

"It is not enough to be a great company," simply comments on the hot issues of today. Instead, Cook believes that "we should only talk when we have some knowledge to bring about."

That's partly why Cook recently publicly rebuked President Donald Trump's controversial immigration policy that led to children being held and separated from their parents on the border between the United States and Mexico. Like many tech companies, Cook said that Apple has benefited over the years from thousands of immigrants with H-1B visas who came to work in the company.

It's all too often when we talk about immigration that people tend to focus specifically on "numbers," he said. "But there are real people behind who have real feelings."

Cook has also doubled Apple's approach to digital privacy, which contrasts with some of its major technology competitors such as Facebook and Google, whose advertising companies depend on collecting information about digital privacy. users.

He said that Apple had not started preaching digital privacy because of the intense media scrutiny over the last few months, but instead put the issue in the forefront plan for a while. Cook has not named any companies in particular, but he has already criticized Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and the online advertising model of the social networking giant that has been criticized in recent months because of "bad news". a number of privacy issues.

"We were convinced of privacy when nobody cared," Cooks said. "It was not something we woke up to and we said," The media is focused on privacy, let's do it. "

Cook said Apple executives predicted that creating "detailed" online user profiles "would result in significant damage over time" and that these profiles could be "used for too much harm" .

Although Apple has many opinions on hot topics, Cook said the company focuses on policy issues rather than supporting a particular political party or candidate.

"Apple does not give a dollar to a political campaign," Cook said. He is particularly critical of political action committees (PACs) that combine the campaign contributions of many entities.

"I do not agree at all with companies or the concept of PAC in general, of people who do not vote by putting money into political campaigns," Cook said.

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Asked about his seven years at the helm of the world's most valuable company, and how long he would continue in his current role, Cook hinted that he still believed that he was left with a few more years.

"It's a lifetime privilege to be at Apple and run the company," Cook said. "And I hope to have a good time again."

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