In a passionately delivered speech, Apple CEO Tim Cook has called for tough new U.S. data protection laws to protect the privacy of users, which Cook says is being threatened by a growing “data industrial complex.”
Cook’s remarks came during a keynote speech he gave on Wednesday at the 40th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC), which is being held in Brussels.
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.
Cook commended the European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which places tighter restrictions on how personal data is used by businesses and organizations. He also called for a similar law in the U.S.
“This year you’ve shown the world that good policy and political will can come together to protect the rights of everyone,” he said. “It is time for the rest of the world, including my home country, to follow your lead. We in Apple are in full support of a comprehensive federal privacy law in the United States.”
Cook says a U.S. privacy law should prioritize the following:
- Data minimization — “the right to have personal data minimized”, saying companies should “challenge themselves” to de-identify customer data or not collect it in the first place
- Transparency — “the right to knowledge”, saying users should “always know what data is being collected and what it is being collected for, saying it’s the only way to “empower users to decide what collection is legitimate and what isn’t”. “Anything less is a shame,” he added
- The right to access — saying companies should recognize that “data belongs to users”, and it should be made easy for users to get a copy of, correct and delete their personal data
- The right to security — saying “security is foundational to trust and all other privacy rights”
Cook criticized tech companies that “endorse reform in public and then resist and undermine it behind closed doors.” He added: “It’s time to face facts. We will never achieve technology’s true potential without the full faith and confidence of the people who use it.”
“They may say to you our companies can never achieve technology’s true potential if there were strengthened privacy regulations. But this notion isn’t just wrong it is destructive — technology’s potential is and always must be rooted in the faith people have in it. In the optimism and the creativity that stirs the hearts of individuals. In its promise and capacity to make the world a better place.”
“It’s time to face facts,” Cook added. “We will never achieve technology’s true potential without the full faith and confidence of the people who use it.”
