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APPLE’S PRIVACY AND security has been in the firing line for the past month. After questions were asked of iCloud after nude photos of celebrities were taken and published on online forums, the focus is now on Apple Pay, the company’s new mobile payments service.
In an interview with Charlie Rose, Apple CEO Tim Cook says that the company is not interested in obtaining and amassing information about its users.
Our business is based on selling these [iPhones]. Our business is not based on having information about you. You’re not our product. Our product are these, and this watch, and Macs and so forth. And so we run a very different company.I think everyone has to ask ‘how do companies make their money? Follow the money, and if they’re making money mainly by collecting gobs of personal data, I think you have a right to be worried and you should really understand what’s happening to that data, and the companies, I think, should be very transparent about it.
Cook mentioned that when the company creates a product, it “tries not to collect data.
“We’re not reading your email, we’re not reading your iMessage”, he said, adding that claims that government agencies had a “back door” to its servers were false.
However, he expects the debate on privacy and security to be a “key topic over the next year or so” as data companies like Google and Amazon face increased scrutiny.
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I’d be very surprised if Apple weren’t reading your email for integration with things like Siri, for example,not that I think it’s necessarily a bad thing when done responsibly, I just find the claim very dubious. I also think it is a bit much for Apple to claim that the US don’t have a backdoor, perhaps Apple haven’t given them a backdoor, but considering the lengths the NSA have gone to, it would be surprising if they couldn’t or wouldn’t put some sort of backdoor on Apples servers.
Apple certainly don’t have the same commercial interests in peoples data that the likes of Google and Facebook have, but it seems a bit unbelievable that they have zero interest, and a bit naive of Tim Cook to suggest that the US doesn’t have access to whatever information they do hold.
Still though, it is nice to see Apple turning these sort of issues into a selling point.
If he said “we won’t collect your data because it’s illegal and we might get caught” then I’d accept that as a reasonable statement. But for a businessman to say “we’re not interested” is clearly a lie. Of course Apple is interested in your data!
Great news, now terrorists and drug dealers will be tripping over themselves to get the new iPhone.
That’s unlikely, there are well documented backdoors into iOS devices http://www.techtimes.com/articles/10970/20140723/ios-backdoor-entry-is-real-says-jonathan-zdziarski-not-for-nsa-says-apple.htm
the devices themselves don’t need to be (fully) compromised to ensure a nice juicy dragnet.
If they get in all the networks in the world, which they’re not far off doing, it doesn’t really matter what Apple claim, or deny.
The fear factory that is the media…. Someone is telling porky pies and my bet is its the never ending sensationalism on the telly every night that is to blame… once again
What in the name of God are you talking about?
Says Apple….A corporation that utilizes the forbidden fruit logo.
Apples are good for you Frank!
Why did you change your name, Frank?
Not interested in personal data ye ok ??
They pass it on to NSA
Yeah and im the king of Sheeba. This from a company with original sin (the devil) as their logo and who first prices their computer at 666.66. Have never bought any of their tat.
Ps – im not religious, I just hate satanic bstards…. like Bono.
Actions speak louder than words… But change the Terms & Conditions as a first step.
have your say