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Tim Cook Says Apple's Customers Are Not Its Product, Unlike Facebook (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the unfortunate-situations dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with MSNBC and Recode on Wednesday that Silicon Valley, and notably Facebook, should be far more careful with its customers' data in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica disclosures. "I think the best regulation is no regulation, is self-regulation," he said, according to Recode. "However, I think we're beyond that here." Cook reiterated points that he and former CEO Steve Jobs made previously, that Apple's business model -- unlike Google, Facebook, and many other tech companies -- is predicated on selling physical products rather than capturing data about customers. "We've never believed that these detailed profiles of people that have incredibly deep personal information that is patched together from several sources should exist," he said, according to The Wall Street Journal. "The truth is, we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer -- if our customer was our product," he added. "We've elected not to do that."

3 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. Apple just does it differently... by slew · · Score: 4, Interesting

    By locking their customers in a walled garden and charging outside companies 30% to sell things to those customers, they have little need to sell the information about their customers outside of their walled garden.

    The other ecosystems don't charge 30% to outside companies and instead get them to pay them money for information about their customers...

    Basically, Apple is making money taxing exchanges in eco-system where other eco-systems are relying on value-add sales...

  2. Re:Whoa there chuckles by dog77 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    To clarify your post. In all of the links you posted apple is using your private information in an attempt to improve the product and is not selling it to anyone.

  3. Re:They're elected not to do it... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Their privacy policy is precisely why I'm surprised they're not selling data.

    McDonalds doesn't sell tables and chairs, but those are one of the main attractions of going there (it's definitely not the food).

    Apple says it shares your personal data with "strategic partners". What is a strategic partner, and more important how much do you have to pay Apple to become one?

    --
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