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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.
Mr Cook...it isn't like APPLE doesn't data mine. What a joke (cr)Apple has become.
I like this attitude, at this rate my next phone my be an iPhone. At least they do more than lip service for this sort of thing.
Like every other consumer device.
It is not possible to securely use any modern computer.
No. Fishing expeditions for 'social' crimes, YES.
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.
Facebook already has a database on trannies to hand over the government as soon as the legislation is signed.
Unlike Google and Facebook, Apple does have real products.
With Google and Facebook, YOU are the product. And Google and Facebook and Twitter will go all Miracle Max on the all-dead corpse of your privacy looking for loose change.
STOP ALLOWING DATA MINING COMPANIES TO PUT APPS ON YOUR PLATFORMS. PERIOD.
ANY company that collects or offers to store your data is a potential harvester and security risk of that data and any tangential connection that could be made to that data.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Maybe.
Cook is still full of sanctimonious shyte.
Dreamer. Personally, I'm ready to throw my phone away and be done with it for good.
This has got to be the joke of the century! Tim Cook is so insanely great.
Microsoft's job: proletariat surveillance.
Apples job: bourgeois surveillance.
Googles job: everyone surveillance.
Facebook: propaganda
Twitter: propaganda
Amazon: surveillance storage and retrieval.
and the list goes on.
Apple loves to control what its users do with its products, but the moment there is something like data that it can't control, they complain? I know that people love to hate various companies, from Microsoft to Facebook to Google, but NONE of them are as bad as Apple when it comes to trying to control the users.
Apple is the only one taking privacy at all seriously.
Even for determining how to make Maps better, Apple has said they don't sample whole routes, just fragments of routes to see how Maps is performing...
They also do things like keep Face and Touch ID all local on the device, nothing goes to Apple.
So once again, just what do you claim they are mining?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
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.
10 Troll posts . . . that have no clue.
1) At very least, Apple is beating the drum, everyone else is saying don't worry
2) Apple has gone on record FOR protecting users, putting themselves in a spot where, if it's ever found out that they're lying, NO one will trust them
3) The comment about China? Let's see some sources that say what's provided to the government, and whether it's the carriers or Apple; don't forget, the biggest provider is owned by the government . . .
Get out of your basements, get some sun, it's 2018
Dear Tim,
While I appreciate your pro-privacy stance in the face of an ocean of tech companies who disagree with you, I unfortunately think of this quote:
"As long as people make money from war, there will always be war."
Just replace "war" with "data mining of your personal life". The point is, it's easy to say war is bad. It's hard to end war, when people are making so much money from it.
They're leasing you to the advertisers instead.
What exactly does that mean? It sounds great but what are you thinking is happening - if there's no transfer of data from Apple to advertisers, then how can you claim anything like "leasing" is occurring, which is just another form of buying... leasing is just another form of buying.
Remember, Apple's walled garden isn't to protect you, it's to cage you.
What are the reasons divers use shark cages I wonder.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I tried using DuckDuckGo for a while since it doesn't track me like Google does, omg, it's fucking impossible to find anything with that damn thing. If I search for something, I expect the result to be a website in my own country or even a website targeting people in my city and my group of interests specifically. Not a website on the other side of the world. I love the fact that Google knows what language I develop in when I search for a function. Any language could have the same function, but Google always shows me exactly what i'm looking for without extra effort. And I love targeting. Do you want to watch ads for tampons if you're a male? Or do you want to quickly find out about a cool new game similar to another one you might be interested in? Oh man, I couldn't function in society were it not for tracking... besides, before Google, "in the good old days" all your neighborhood stores "tracked" your grandparents... the grocer knew what to keep in stock for them, and it was good. It was called personal service, and was desireable. Would people quit getting their panties in a knot because of automated statistics? Nobody gives a fuck what type of porn you watch...
"Dear Apple investors ... I have utterly failed to engage the same data market you would expect from a tech company of Apple's size in this field. We have managed to fumble around with iCloud or whatever but we failed. Yes, we failed and that makes everyone else so, so very bad. You would think this was just blatant hypocrisy, but it is very different from that. It is different because we are applying different standards in different cases. In Amazon's case, they are not angry about it like I am. So it's a different case. And look! As a bonus, we are not sorry at all. So you have every reason to trust us and continue to invest in our brand."
-Tim
It is surveillance, plan and simple, just as he says.
Tim Cook, however, represents the same type of corporation as the ones he critizies. I suspect that he maybe would like to know everything about Apples' customers, too. And the potential Apple customers. And control their behaviour to purchase more Apple products and services. It is hard to distinguish any ernest concern for a surveillance society, from being upset for not having competitive technology in this field.
Data collection has come to be the new level of expectation for businesses. I saw Dragon's Den the other day, where some app developers, however brilliant in marketing and technology, were flamed for not collecting and monetizing on the user data.
It is ironic how the society that led the world in the fight against oppression and for freedom, now leads the world into a world of digital slavery...
At the end of they day the data is where the money is
How can you say that when Apple is the living proof that statement is wrong? Or at best partially correct.
Oh there is money in data to be sure. But that is not where even MOST of the money is. Apple has managed to amass more money than any other company with a philosophy of not selling data on customers, period.
Obviously it is possible to make money via a different path than selling data.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If he can't be truthful about something this obvious, how can anyone trust his evaluation of Apple's supply chain security.
WOW, I didn't expect all of this bullshit comments on slashdot.
What is it with corporations and their leadership these days? They criticize others about the behaviors they themselves engage in.
This is the only way to empower users to decide what collection is legitimate and what isn't.
You CAN`T "empowers users", because the stupidity of users knows no bounds. It expands as far as it must in order that they will dis-empower themselves.
I'm getting tired of people saying "[Noun] Industrial Complex" without apparently understanding the meaning of the original Military-Industrial Complex. That original phrase meant that the Military and Industry were in a Complicated relationship with each other. It's not talking about an "Industrial Complex" (whatever that is) run by or about the Military.
"Data Industrial Complex" implies that there's something separate from Industry called Data, and that Data and Industry are in a Complicated relationship with each other. That does not seem to be the the way it's used, though.
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
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.
It's so cool he says that given that Apple boasts the biggest margins in the industry only rivaled by the sellers of drugs and weapons.
And also, what's their fee on purchases in App Store? Something close to 30%? I would love to have a business like that.
I'm not downplaying his concerns about data mining but you cannot expect Facebook (LinkedIn/Twitter/Google/etc.) to offer their services completely for free - they want something in return and it's your data which you part with. Meanwhile you are free not to use Facebook ever or use it without giving FB any of your information.
If you're really paranoid and value your privacy, you don't have a smartphone. You don't use the Internet. You don't visit public places (CCTV everywhere). You don't fly. You may as well don't exist at all nowadays: if it's not for these large companies (your data-leaking friends have enough data on you anyways) then the government will keep tabs on you until you die.
Google, Facebook and other background data brokers that profit from privacy-hostile business models
It's worth noting that Apple sells thick-client product that are deeply threatened by thin-client cloud-based solutions like the products Google is selling. When you can buy a Chromebook for $250 that lasts for a decade, convincing people to drop $2000 on a Macbook becomes a much harder sell.
If you're Cook, your primary way to attack this market erosion is to seed doubt about data in the cloud.
Is this the power of the autism industrial complex?
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...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES KEN DOLL AND FOR YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY YOU DISHONEST COWARD.
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
I am not always convinced Apple is sincere about any issue they bring up. Other then its a potential marketing angle they think is attractive. Notice that just as the privacy concerns are heightened in users minds. Apple just happens to come along and say they feel your concern. Yes, I do think there is a shred of sincerity from Tim Cook about privacy. But I also know how Apple probably thinks it can make some money from selling privacy now.
Data is better than money. It is power, from which you can generate money.
>Your profile is a bunch of algorithms that serve up increasingly extreme content,
What did he mean by this?
How is it increasingly extreme and towards which extremitie(s) based on what personal information?
They're selling ads from their servers on behalf of advertisers.
Ok... but since Apple doesn't sell ads, just WTF are you talking about?
Hence "leasing", for a lack of a better term.
Hence "wrong" because you are wrong about Apple leasing data to third parties. They don't even have data to lease!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Name Check: to mention approvingly by name
I have to say that namecheck, press-ganged into a verb, with the mainsail of semantic drift inflated to a D cup, made me throw up a little bit in my mouth.
Perhaps "blamecheck" could step into the breech, initially sounding twice as hipster refurb, though about 10% as asinine.
I can't wait until he goes after Apple for their monopoly abuse, garbage quality standards, illegal labor practices, and price fixing. Oh wait...
Which is another form of selling your information.
Which Apple does not have since they do not collect it.
Your information is being provided to another party.
To who, and what exactly do you think Apple is selling since they do not collect information from me?
What a truly precious little snowflake you are....
What an ignorant child you are...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm sure we'll take his words to heart and make some smart decisions like we did with the MIC.
And just think of the possibilities of a combo.
Peter- "Oh, wonderful, we have to get these two together."
Egon - "I think that would be extraordinarily dangerous."
Only a matter of time.
"Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world." - Alan Greenspan, 1999
THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES KEN DOLL YOU DISHONEST COWARD AND YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY.
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Apple is one of the largest offenders when it comes to user data collection. You know they aren't keeping it private. It is worth too much, and is one of the main reasons Apple is worth $1T... it's not the phones. It's the data they possess about you.
"How dare the data of my browsing habits be retained!"
You tiny peenie stalker... you're obviously deranged. Everyone can see how tiny you are in so many important places XD Each time you write it confirms what we know about you
THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES KEN DOLL YOU DISHONEST COWARD AND YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY.
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
He's just grumpy because Apple's not the only company in the game.
Where is the GNAA when you need them???
These pronouncements always come around the time of new iPhone sales. The Washington Post story (re: embedded Chinese chips) came out around the same time the new iPhones came out and Cook suggested a retraction - not demanded, did not sue. Everyone called it an unprecedented move by a CEO but all he did was passively suggest the story was wrong... Bottom line: he just wants to make sure the iDevices, filled to the brim with data-slurping apps and FaceID, get sold to make investors and stocks prices tingle.
They do have an ad platform everyone is forced to use.
Oh you mean this one?
The one that no developer was ever forced to use, and that was shut down - in part because Apple wouldn't give advertisers user data?
They do have an app that suggests what to watch.
You mean TV? That simply displays what is popular to download, based on downloads only and nothing sent to Apple from users?
The only time Apple uses data like that is ratings, where USERS CHOSE TO SEND RATINGS TO APPLE. Apple did not collect the data from the users.
You may have the last word since you know nothing about anything and reading your posts further would just be insane.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This is interesting. Essentially, Google and Facebook monetize user data obtained via surveillance of their platform to make money. Apple and Microsoft sells hardware and software to make money. Increasingly, Microsoft is also monetizing user data obtained via surveillance, while Apple isn't. Probably this is because Apple is doing very well at making money in the way it traditionally does. This is less so for Microsoft. Hence the difference: Apple is criticizing Google and Facebook, while Microsoft is joining them. Apple sees greater upside from positioning itself as a platform that is at least nominally opposed to surveillance, than becoming such a platform itself. Hence it can point out the truth here, where its competitors would rather not.
I would rather be Googles product then have apple hold my hardware hostage every time it needs to be repaired.
Looking at the comments and arguments on this topic so far, it appears that a lot of people on this board would rather cut their dicks off than admit Apple is doing something right.
Society is improved when we applaud good things and reject bad things.
...a number of Chinese could see the advantage of owning a phone that doesn't give everything over to the Chinese government.
fix the extremely annoying bugs in iOS 12.0.1 I'm tired of my iPhone 6+ behaving as if a ghost has gone crazy hitting keys randomly, and the display jittering right and left about 1mm at about 3 or 4 jitters per second.
Running with Linux for over 20 years!
Don't be a DIC! AKA "data industrial complex."
As an American I have to ask:
Why cant I as the user being spied on get a copy of this data?
Why cant I use this data for self reflection, or actively help fix mistakes they inevitably make?
Why cant I benefit from it the same exact way the company does?
Why cant I get paid residuals somehow?
Why cant I block the company from sharing this data?
Why cant I be free?
Tim Cook should look for blisters downstairs. Apple sucks and is just as evil as Google. Nothing to see here.
The good kind of gov/mil surveillance that should never be mentioned?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
No, you change elections with data. Money become secondary.
If you did a survey which Apple strategy would be the most important to consumers?
1 - Maintaining Privacy and continuing to strengthen it
2 - Restoring the headphone jack
"Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil." - Niccolo Machiavelli
spy on their people and weaponize the gathered data to the point of MURDERING anybody they choose to eliminate, while he himself is enriched by the use of communist slave labor.
Do the world a favor, Mr Cook, and improve the global moral condition by offing yourself; you're absolutely no better than an 1850's southern slave owner or a WWII NAZI collaborator.
There's NOBODY in the big offices of Facebook, Google, or Apple who has an ounce of morality and none of them are eligible to point a finger at anybody else.
When Apple resellers (not even Apple related) sell Apple gear, they don't hesitate to collect the customers data and shove Applecare down their throats.
Apple cares about other companies getting data.
In fact, they have their own ad platform, where they use data they collect to profit from ads.
At one point, Hitler talked shit about the SS.
Godwin time, but it's still true, and apt.