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Apple CEO Tim Cook reiterates his call for new government regulations to protect the confidentiality of information provided by technology companies.
The amount of information stored online and on the phones of individual users is huge, said Cook in an interview with Vice News Tonight on Tuesday. The technology industry has failed to respect and protect these data, he said.
"I am not a type of person in favor of regulation, I believe deeply in the free market," Cook said. But, he added, "When the free market does not produce a positive outcome for society, you have to ask yourself: what should we do? And I think that a level of government regulation is important for get out. "
Despite advocating for new regulations, Cook, who has repeatedly pleaded for new rules on privacy, has expressed doubts that Congress is also at the cutting edge of technology for the protection of privacy. to develop useful legislation in this area. The technological literacy of lawmakers and their staff is "a challenge," he said.
"It is necessary to work with Congress and staff to make sure we are doing our job to help them become familiar with … what is possible," he said.
Consumer advocates, policymakers and technology personalities are increasingly discussing the need for new privacy regulations, particularly following the Cambridge Analytica Facebook scandal this spring. During this incident, some 87 million client files were leaked to a data analyst company linked to President Donald Trump. More recently, Facebook acknowledged that at least 50 million accounts had been compromised by a security breach.
Cook does not think Apple will change its position on confidentiality
Apple and Cook have repeatedly tried to distinguish the company from its counterparts in Big Tech such as Facebook and Google. Unlike these companies, Apple's business is not focused on advertising revenue or collecting user data to target them with ads. Apple is actually trying to limit the amount of information collected about users, Cook said.
"In designing our products, we challenge ourselves to collect as little as possible," he said. He continued, "You are not our product."
Some industry players have argued that Apple's data collection restrictions would undermine the company's ability to compete with rivals, particularly in areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. . These technologies tend to improve as they access more data. A smart assistant, for example, could possibly come up with more useful suggestions about the restaurant that a user might like if he had more information about the restaurants that he liked before.
But Cook disputed the notion that Apple would need to collect more data on users to improve its services, suggesting that users' devices could collect them instead, without sharing them with the company.
"Some companies will try to make you believe that" I have to use all your data to improve my services. "Well, do not believe that," he says. "Whoever is telling you – it's a bonk strip." We try to keep as much information as possible about this device because we want this device to be aware because you're relying on the device for that to be smart. "
Some consumer rights advocates have expressed concern that, while Apple may now respect user privacy, things could change under Cook's successors. Users' iPhones collect a lot of data and the company could choose to start collecting them for itself.
But Cook also challenged this idea, saying it would go against Apple's culture.
"I think the next person [who runs Apple]I do not want to commit them, but I can not imagine it. It's not in my imagination that someone just says "oh, time to change," he said. I do not see it.
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