Filip Novotny The debate, which was opened by the scandalous case of the NSA, is now being pushed further by the current topic of terrorist attacks. Users of mobile and online services can find themselves under the surveillance of government organizations under the pretext of an investigation, and especially in the US, there are almost no possibilities to control such interventions. Tim Cook now in an interview for the British Telegraph spoke about the need for privacy protection, whether it's government agencies or large companies.
"None of us should accept that governments, private companies, or anyone else should have access to all of our private information," Apple's boss opens the debate. When it comes to government interventions, on the one hand, he recognizes that it is necessary to fight hard against terrorism, but on the other hand, it is not necessary to interfere in the privacy of ordinary people.
"Terrorism is an appalling thing and we must stop it. These people shouldn't exist, we should eliminate them," says Cook. However, he adds at the same time that the monitoring of mobile and online communications is ineffective and disproportionately affects ordinary users of the services. "We shouldn't give in to scaremongering or panicking or people who fundamentally don't understand the details," Cook warned.
From the point of view of the head of Apple, it is important to understand that it is very difficult to get the data of terrorists, because they often encrypt it. As a result, governments have little chance of obtaining their information, but instead only restrict the freedoms of innocent people.
But Cook's concerns are not limited to government organizations. The problem of privacy protection also exists in the private sphere, specifically with large companies such as Facebook or Google. These companies make money by obtaining partial information about their users, collecting and analyzing it and then selling it to advertisers.
According to Cook, Apple does not intend to resort to similar practices. "We have a very straightforward business model. We make money when we sell you an iPhone. This is our product. It's not you," says Cook, alluding to his competitors. "We design our products to keep as little information about our users as possible," he adds.
It is said that Apple will retain its lack of interest in the personal data of its customers with future products, for example the Apple Watch. “If you want to keep your health information private, you don't have to share it with your insurance company. These things shouldn't be hanging on a bulletin board somewhere," assures Tim Cook, a shiny Apple Watch on his wrist.
The product with probably the greatest security risk is the new payment system called Apple Pay. Even that, however, was designed by the Californian company in such a way that it knew as little as possible about its customers. "If you pay for something with your phone using Apple Pay, we don't want to know what you bought, how much you paid for it, and where," Cook says.
Apple only cares that you bought a new iPhone or watch to use the payment service, and the bank pays them 0,15 percent of the sales amount from each transaction. Everything else is between you, your bank and the merchant. And in this direction as well, security is gradually being tightened, for example with the technology of tokenization of payment data, which is currently is also preparing for Europe.
At the end of the interview with the Telegraph, Tim Cook admits that they could quite easily make money from their customers' data. However, he himself answers that such a step would be short-sighted and would undermine the trust of customers in Apple. “We don't think you would want us to know the intimate details of your work or personal communications. I have no right to know such things," says Cook.
According to him, Apple avoids practices that we will encounter, for example, with some e-mail providers. “We don't scan your messages and look up what you wrote where about your trip to Hawaii so we can sell you targeted advertising. Could we make money from it? Of course. But it's not in our value system.”
I would like to believe... but in today's rotten world it is not possible... see a few years ago the scandal with the collection of data where you are located and the storage of this data on apple servers as well.... why does apple need it at all? I think that in today's world words and deeds diverge diametrically... my father gently calls it alibism... Americans are starting to be more sensitive to personal data and so they buy an interview... I know you're trashing me but I really don't trust him with this product placement...