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Apple's Tim Cook Makes Blistering Attack on the 'Data Industrial Complex' (techcrunch.com)
Apple's CEO Tim Cook has joined the chorus of voices warning that data itself is being weaponized against people and societies -- arguing that the trade in digital data has exploded into a "data industrial complex." From a report: Cook did not namecheck the adtech elephants in the room: Google, Facebook and other background data brokers that profit from privacy-hostile business models. But his target was clear. "Our own information -- from the everyday to the deeply personal -- is being weaponized against us with military efficiency," warned Cook. "These scraps of data, each one harmless enough on its own, are carefully assembled, synthesized, traded and sold. Taken to the extreme this process creates an enduring digital profile and lets companies know you better than you may know yourself. Your profile is a bunch of algorithms that serve up increasingly extreme content, pounding our harmless preferences into harm. We shouldn't sugarcoat the consequences. This is surveillance," he added. In a series of tweets, Cook added: It was an honor to be invited to ICDPPC 2018 in Brussels this morning. I'd like to share a bit of what I said to this gathering of privacy regulators from around the world. It all boils down to a fundamental question: What kind of world do we want to live in? GDPR has shown us all that good policy and political will can come together to protect the rights of everyone. We believe that privacy is a fundamental human right. No matter what country you live in, that right should be protected in keeping with four essential principles.
First, companies should challenge themselves to de-identify customer data or not collect that data in the first place. Second, users should always know what data is being collected from them and what it's being collected for. This is the only way to empower users to decide what collection is legitimate and what isn't. Anything less is a sham. Third, companies should recognize that data belongs to users and we should make it easy for people to get a copy of their personal data, as well as correct and delete it. And fourth, everyone has a right to the security of their data. Security is at the heart of all data privacy and privacy rights. Technology is capable of doing great things. But it doesn't want to do great things. It doesn't want anything. That part takes all of us. We are optimistic about technology's awesome potential for good -- but we know that it won't happen on its own.
First, companies should challenge themselves to de-identify customer data or not collect that data in the first place. Second, users should always know what data is being collected from them and what it's being collected for. This is the only way to empower users to decide what collection is legitimate and what isn't. Anything less is a sham. Third, companies should recognize that data belongs to users and we should make it easy for people to get a copy of their personal data, as well as correct and delete it. And fourth, everyone has a right to the security of their data. Security is at the heart of all data privacy and privacy rights. Technology is capable of doing great things. But it doesn't want to do great things. It doesn't want anything. That part takes all of us. We are optimistic about technology's awesome potential for good -- but we know that it won't happen on its own.
Shorter Tim Cook "You can trust us, but don't trust our competitors."
Not a shocking position for a CEO to take I suppose.
No, they do nothing more than lip service. Apple is blatantly providing data to the Chinese government; the iPhone has been allowed to succeed there. Apple isn't "selling your data" ... it's much to precious to sell. They're leasing you to the advertisers instead. Remember, Apple's walled garden isn't to protect you, it's to cage you.
Says the CEO of a company that bends over backwards to help a communist government to suppress its people so they can make a better profit.
No, Tim Cook just wants everyone to be locked into an Apple controlled environment, and other big businesses being out there stops him from being the one in charge of what they see, don't see, what programs/apps they can use, etc.
They are 'mining' real resources using slaves to make cheap electronics which are recycled at ~20% efficiency, they are aggressive against the right to repair movement, aggressive to tie in their software to their upgrade cycle, aggressive to customers who throw hundreds of extra dollars at an average product.
Lovely aluminium chasis. Hint: aluminium for a cheap computer meant to last 3 years is a dumb decision that gives us 2+ degrees global warming.
Apple could help enhance privacy for everybody : just make an iMessage client for Android and Windows. I am tired of relying on WhatsApp just because it is the greatest common denominator.
Third, companies should recognize that data belongs to users
This is the fundamental issue, and we went the wrong way back in the 1980's when companies starting building computer databases. Your electric bill and phone bill should be your data. Your bank account transactions should be your data. But we went the wrong way and decided that your bank account information really belongs to your bank, and they just license you to access it. Wrong wrong wrong, and it's going to be a really difficult slope to go back and fix that.
Troll harder.
If you can't use Duck Duck Go you probably can't tie your shoelaces. Targeting does the exact opposite of what you describe, it makes things harder to find since it burys more precise results under a mountain of "other users searched for blank instead" suggestions.
Want to look up a restaurant or business in another city on google, or search for an obscure name or term? Have fun having it "correct" your search and bombard you with advertisements for local stuff or shit you don't need. "Did you mean something completely unrelated because your search only represented 1%% of our users and we won't make any fucking money if you don't want what we're selling? We hope not because we're not bothering to show you the correct results!"
I much prefer a search engine which does exactly what I tell it to do. If I want to search for a foreign language word I don't want it to give me the local restaurant that happens to have the same name, or the paid for ads that appear absolutely all over the search results and dominate what I see. If I wanted that restaurant, I can easily type my city or the word restaurant and get exactly what I wanted.
You being a lazy piece of shit is what makes searching for obscure or even just slightly outside statistically normal things nearly impossible.
I guess if you only use the internet to find that same restaurant you've been to five times but keep forgetting about that's fine. Honestly there is benefit to both, but the few times I've actually found google to be helpful can probably be counted on one hand.
Apple supports privacy now, they're a corporation. They're a couple bad quarters away from selling your info to Advertisers same as everybody else. You're safe so long as the profits from their hardware biz are strong, but that's not the most reassuring thing in the world...
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has no inherent need to mine data
Insomuch as public companies have stock holders, this is incorrect.