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Apple CEO Tim Cook Calls For Laws To Tackle 'Shadow Economy' of Data Firms (time.com)
Apple's chief executive has called for regulation to tackle the "shadow economy" of data brokers -- intermediaries who trade in the personal information of largely unsuspecting consumers -- as the company continues its push to be seen as supportive of privacy. Tim Cook, in an op-ed for Time Magazine published on Thursday, said: One of the biggest challenges in protecting privacy is that many of the violations are invisible. For example, you might have bought a product from an online retailer -- something most of us have done. But what the retailer doesn't tell you is that it then turned around and sold or transferred information about your purchase to a "data broker" -- a company that exists purely to collect your information, package it and sell it to yet another buyer. The trail disappears before you even know there is a trail. Right now, all of these secondary markets for your information exist in a shadow economy that's largely unchecked -- out of sight of consumers, regulators and lawmakers.
Let's be clear: you never signed up for that. We think every user should have the chance to say, "Wait a minute. That's my information that you're selling, and I didn't consent." Meaningful, comprehensive federal privacy legislation should not only aim to put consumers in control of their data, it should also shine a light on actors trafficking in your data behind the scenes. Some state laws are looking to accomplish just that, but right now there is no federal standard protecting Americans from these practices. That's why we believe the Federal Trade Commission should establish a data-broker clearinghouse, requiring all data brokers to register, enabling consumers to track the transactions that have bundled and sold their data from place to place, and giving users the power to delete their data on demand, freely, easily and online, once and for all.
Let's be clear: you never signed up for that. We think every user should have the chance to say, "Wait a minute. That's my information that you're selling, and I didn't consent." Meaningful, comprehensive federal privacy legislation should not only aim to put consumers in control of their data, it should also shine a light on actors trafficking in your data behind the scenes. Some state laws are looking to accomplish just that, but right now there is no federal standard protecting Americans from these practices. That's why we believe the Federal Trade Commission should establish a data-broker clearinghouse, requiring all data brokers to register, enabling consumers to track the transactions that have bundled and sold their data from place to place, and giving users the power to delete their data on demand, freely, easily and online, once and for all.
" intermediaries who trade in the personal information of largely unsuspecting consumers "
Would Apple be quite so in favor of this we we, say, included hardware firms in the 'intermediaries' category?
Unlike Google and Facebook, Apple actually has a business model that doesn't involve strip-mining the dead bodies of our privacy looking for loose change.
I'm about as strong a free-market libertarian as one can be, but Google et al have gone waaaaay too far down the "doing evil" rabbit hole and they need to be reigned in.
You have no right to the PRIVATE DETAIL OF MY LIFE, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU COLLECT IT SURREPTITIOUSLY.
IMO, they should have to FUCKING ASK for the EXACT details of what they want to collect, and IF I say "OK", that OK automatically expires after, say, 90 days.
Otherwise, nope, they can't collect it.
And just to make it fun - pierce the corporate veil for any company that violates that. Think Fuckerberg would allow privacy violations at his moral shithole if his fortune were at stake?
All big tech companies harvest data, but Apple relies on it far less than Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon. So any restrictive laws will disproportionately hobble Apple's competitors. Tim is trying to frame this as "concern for the little guy", but it is really just self-interest.
All big tech companies harvest data, but Apple relies on it far less than Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon.
They don't just rely on it less: they collect less, and they've done so all along.
Moreover, Apple could have walked down the same path that Google, Microsoft, and others have gone down by collecting and monetizing more data on their customers, but they voluntarily chose not to do so when presented with that opportunity. Instead, they chose to align their business interests with those of their customers. That decision cost them opportunities at the time and has been suggested to have set them back technologically when it comes to mapping, voice assistants, and other areas, but it's starting to pay off now that people are slowly waking up to just what it is that they've been giving away all along.
So, yes, it's self-serving of them to hammer their competitors on privacy, but they only have the ability to hammer their competitors on privacy because they chose to NOT follow their competitors down the path of literally selling out users. That decision was a forward-thinking one at the time, and it's coming back to pay dividends now.
If anything, Apple does far too little to reduce their tax bill. They should be zeroing it out the way that GE does.
Every dollar in government hands is dollar either wasted, or spent on causing bloody mayhem.
If you are not positing this from Somalia, then you are a hypocrite.