Apple CEO Tim Cook zooms daggers on Google and Facebook | Digital



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Tim Cook at an EU conference on privacy in Brussels on Wednesday

Tim Cook participates Wednesday in a conference of the EU on the respect of the private life in Brussels Credit: Bloomberg

Apple CEO Tim Cook has attacked companies such as Facebook and Google, which collect user data, equating their services with "surveillance," stressing the importance of privacy and confidentiality. legislation to protect it.

The comments, held at an EU privacy conference in Brussels on Wednesday, come a few months after the bloc introduced tough new data protection rules. and that Apple is starting to restore a difficult relationship with the European Union after a dispute of nearly $ 15 billion allegedly unpaid taxes.

In some of its harshest reviews to date, Cook has sought to distinguish the iPhone maker from Silicon Valley's competitors, such as Google's Alphabet and Facebook, both under scrutiny for recent user data breaches .

"We should not bear the consequences," he said on Wednesday. "It's a surveillance and these data stocks are only used to enrich the businesses that collect them, that should put us uncomfortable."

Mr. Cook has previously blamed companies for having based their business models on the collection of personal information for advertising purposes, while pointing out that Apple was trying to collect as little as possible.

"At Apple, we believe that privacy is a basic human right, but we also recognize that not everyone sees it that way," said Cook, citing his competitors. "The desire to put profits before privacy is not new."

In a video message later broadcast at the same conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended the company's business model, claiming that it allowed its services "to be affordable for everyone." ".

"Instead of charging users, we are asking advertisers to run ads," Zuckerberg said. "People are constantly telling us that they want a free service."

Erin Egan, Facebook's Privacy Officer, told her audience that her business model is based on people's information processing, "that means we have more to do from the point of view of protecting privacy." private life".

In his speech, Mr. Cook also reiterated calls for US federal privacy laws, similar to those unveiled in Europe, called the General Data Protection Regulation.

As a result of these new rules, European and US regulators and legislators have become familiar with Facebook and Google, particularly as a result of revelations of potential privacy breaches.

In September, Facebook reported a cyber attack that affected 30 million people. Hackers have stolen intimate user information, including search results, recent places, and hometowns, in many cases. After months of silence, Google said in March that it found in its Google+ social network a "technical problem" in March that could have revealed the personal data of half a million users.

Despite criticism of their businesses, Apple benefits indirectly from this activity. According to Goldman Sachs estimates, Google will pay Apple up to $ 9 billion this year for its search engine to be the default engine for many iPhone devices and other Apple devices.

– Bloomberg News

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