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Tim Cook Basically Just Said He Was 'Offended' By The Way Google And Amazon Do Business
JIM EDWARDS (HTTP://WWW.BUSINESSINSIDER.COM/AUTHOR/JIM-EDWARDS?IR=C) 4 SEP 16, 2014, 04.23 PM
(https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/541814576bb3f7ea33f059f9-960/tim-cook-iwatch-2-2.jpg)
Apple CEO Tim Cook has given us perhaps the most important - and possibly most interesting - statement on
individual privacy he's ever made.
And he used it to criticize Google and Amazon, without actually naming them.
He said he was "offended" by the way they conduct business, which is basically by mining your personal information
and credit card data.
\
33 Like Share 20
Apple (http://www.hulu.com/watch/686851)
Tim Cook unveils the Apple Watch.
The biggest change the internet age has pushed onto society is the erosion of privacy, and the increase in the ability
of governments and private companies to conduct surveillance on private citizens, often with those citizens' willing
cooperation. An entire generation has grown up, post 2000, that will never know what it was like to live in an era
(roughly pre-1995) when most people's lives were conducted in complete anonymity - because the tech just wasn't
there to record what we were doing.
"I'm offended by lots of it."
(https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5415c27769bedd53724a17aa-960/screen shot 2014-09-14 at 12.27.09
pm.png)
Screenshot / Hulu (http://www.hulu.com/watch/686851)
Tim Cook talks to Charlie Rose on PBS.
Cook talked about this with Charlie Rose on PBS in the US (http://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-apple-
privacy-2014-9). Rose asked him:

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A lot of people say, you know, have said to me, there's a whole ton of information already out there, that are in
the possession of companies like Google, like so many other companies, that that information is there and they
worry about that ...
Cook's answer appears to reference the way Google and Amazon make money. Google scans its users' Gmail
addresses and tracks their internet activity, and then sells that data anonymously and in aggregate to advertisers.
Amazon holds your credit card number and purchase history, and promotes further goods to you based on that.
Cook described those business models - again, without naming either company - and added, "I'm offended by lots of
it."
Apple doesn't hold information about its users' messages, he said. "Our business is not based on having information
about you. You're not our product. ... if they're making money mainly by collecting gobs of personal data, I think you
have a right to be worried."
That last statement - "you're not our product" - is a reference to a common business model in tech: That a company
provides you with a free service, like Gmail, and in return sells your data to advertisers. "If you're not paying for it,
then you are the product," is a common mantra in the tech world.
That's basically Google's model.
"We don't want it. We're not in that business."
So it's hard to read Cook's comments and conclude that he is not offended by Google's entire operation. (And indeed,
Apple's own version of Google's mobile ad operation, iAd, is a thin shadow of Google's Admob system for Android;
it's really an afterthought.)
When it comes to credit cards, Cook said, "From our point of view, you can see what we're doing on the credit card
thing. We don't want it. We're not in that business. I'm offended by lots of it."
Apple is in that business, of course - it has nearly 1 billion credit cards on file through iTunes. But it doesn't use that
data to target users the way Amazon does. So Cook also appears to be expressing a dislike of Amazon here.
Maybe we're reading too much into this. Maybe Cook was not thinking about Google or Amazon when he said these
things. (If not, who was he referring to?)
It doesn't matter: The bottom line is that Cook clearly believes that Apple users have more privacy protection than
any other tech company customers out there. It's a strong statement.
Form your own conclusion: We've published the full exchange below.
Charlie Rose: A lot of people say, you know, have said to me, there's a whole ton of information already out
there, that are in the possession of companies like Google, like so many other companies, that that information is
there and they worry about that. Too much personal information is out there and who has access to it, that kind
of thing, which is different from than the national security implications of what you do to listen in on people's
phone conversations or what technology companies do to provide a list of whatever might happen.
Tim Cook: We take a very different view of this than a lot of other companies have. Our view is, when we design
a new service, we try not to collect data. So we're not reading your email. We're not reading your iMessage. If the
government laid a subpoena to get iMessages, we can't provide it. It's encrypted and we don't have a key. And so
it's sort of, the door is closed. But our business Charlie, is based on selling these [devices]. 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.
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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 companies I think should be very transparent about it.
From our point of view, you can see what we're doing on the credit card thing. We don't want it. We're not in that
business. I'm offended by lots of it. And so, I think people have a right to privacy. And I think that's going to be a
very key topic over the next year or so. And we'll reach higher and higher levels of urgency as more and more
incidents happen.
I think that the, for us, in the Snowden thing, just to go along on that for just a moment. What we wanted, was,
we wanted instantly to be totally transparent because there were rumors and things being written in the press
that people had backdoors to our servers. None of that is true, zero. We would never allow that to happen. They
would have to cart us out in a box before we would do that. It's, if we ever get information, and we finally got an
agreement from the administration to release how many times we had national security orders on Apple. And in a
six month period, and we had to release a range, because they won't let us say the exact number, it's between zero
and 250. That's the lowest number you can quote. Zero to 250.
Charlie Rose: It could have been one or it could have been 249.
Tim Cook: Correct. But, so you can tell, we have hundreds and millions of customers. So it's a very rare instance
that there's been any data asked. And one of the reasons is, we don't keep a lot. We're not the treasure trove of
places to come to.
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Raj (Bangalore) on 17 Sep, 2014 11:19 AM said:
Irony just drowned itself and committed suicide.
jabberwolf (San Bruno) on 16 Sep, 2014 09:43 PM said:
Bwaahahahaha like Apple doesnt mine your data from iTunes and the App store... AHHAHAHAAAA Pot meet kettle! Not to mention the insane lack of
Apple security. All this while them assuring us your credit card information is safe with them.. bwaaaahahahaaahaaaaaaa!!!! But whats pathetic are the
sheep that follow this nonsense and believe apple.
Too Close (India) on 16 Sep, 2014 07:24 PM said:
So, what I am saying Charlie, is that even though we can't answer government requests for information because our stuff is encrypted, we can allow
hackers to steal all sorts of stuff including nude selfies from our cloud service. What's even more amazing Charlie is that right after a massive security
breach, we can get 4 million people to buy a bigger version of what they already own. But don't worry, only hackers read your e-mails, not us.
PaulC (New York) on 16 Sep, 2014 07:11 PM said:
So in Tim Cook's opinion, it's wrong for Amazon and Google to advertise products to you based on previous purchases or topics you've researched, but
it's perfectly fine for Apple to sell people the same device, over and over, in ever so slightly different shapes. I actually agree with Cook that corporations
holding huge amounts of information on us and their ability to influence us is concerning. But I view Apple's carefully and specifically crafted skill to
influence people to buy the same, expensive product with, at times, little more than a different shape or color just as disconcerting.
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