Tim Cook on Privacy

Good afternoon. And John, thank you very much for that generous introduction and for having us today. It is a privilege to join you and learn from this panel of experts on this appropriate occasion of Data Privacy Day. A little over two years ago, accompanied by my good friend, the much missed Giovanni Bittarelli, and data protection regulators from around the world, I spoke in Brussels about the emergence of a data industrial complex. In that meeting we asked ourselves, what kind of world do we want to live in? Two years later, we should take a hard look at how we answered that question.

The fact is that an interconnected ecosystem of data companies and brokers, purveyors of fake news and division peddlers, of trackers and peddlers just looking to make a quick buck is more present in our lives than ever. It has never been clearer how it degrades our fundamental right to

privacy

in the first place and, consequently, our social fabric. As I said before, if we accept as normal and inevitable that everything in our lives can be aggregated and sold, then we lose much more than data. We lose the freedom to be human. And yet, this is a hopeful new season, a time of reflection and reform, and the most concrete progress of all is due to many of you.

Proving the cynics and pessimists wrong, the GDPR has provided an important foundation for

privacy

rights around the world and its implementation and enforcement must continue. But we can not stay there. We must do more. We are already seeing encouraging progress around the world, including a successful ballot initiative that strengthens consumer protections here in California. Together, we must send a universal humanist response to those who demand the right to private user information that should not and will not be tolerated. As I said in Brussels two years ago, the time has certainly come not only for a comprehensive privacy law here in the United States, but also for global laws and new international agreements that enshrine the principles of data minimization, user insight, user access and data. security around the world.

At Apple, fueled by the leadership of many of you in the privacy community, it has been two years of relentless action. We have worked not only to deepen our own privacy core principles, but also to create ripples of positive change throughout the industry as a whole. We have spoken time and time again in favor of strong encryption without backdoors, recognizing that security is the foundation of privacy. We've set new industry standards for data minimization, user control, and on-device processing for everything from location data to your contacts and photos. While we've led the way in features that keep you healthy and well, we've made sure technologies like a blood oxygen sensor and ECG give you peace of mind that your health data remains yours.

And last but not least, we are implementing powerful new requirements to improve user privacy across the App Store ecosystem. The first is a simple but revolutionary idea we call the Privacy Nutrition Label. Every app, including ours, must share its privacy and data collection practices, information that the App Store presents in a way that each user can understand and act on. The second is called App Tracking Transparency. Basically, ATT is about putting control back in the hands of users and giving them a say in how their data is handled. Users have been asking for this feature for a long time.

We have worked closely with the developers to give them the time and resources to implement it. We are passionate about it because we believe it has great potential to improve things for everyone because ATT responds to a very real problem. Today we published a new document called A Day in the Life of Your Data. It tells the story of how the apps we use every day contain an average of six trackers. This code usually exists to monitor and identify users across applications, observing and recording their behavior. In this case, what the user sees is not always what he gets.

Right now, users may not know whether the apps they use to pass the time, talk to friends, or find a place to eat may, in fact, be transmitting information about the photos they've taken, people in their contact list, or location data that reflects where they eat, sleep or pray. As the article shows, it seems that no information is too private or personal to be monitored, monetized, and aggregated into a 360-degree view of your life. The end result of all this is that you are no longer the customer. You are the product. When ATT is in full effect, users will have a say over this type of tracking.

Some may think this level of information is worth sharing for more targeted ads. Many others, I suspect, will not. Just as most appreciated when we added similar functionality to Safari that limits web trackers several years ago. We consider developing these types of privacy-focused features and innovations to be a core responsibility of our work. We always have. We always will. The fact is that the ATT debate is a microcosm of a debate that we have been having for a long time and in which our point of view is very clear. The technology does not need large amounts of personal data stitched together across dozens of websites and apps to be successful.

Advertising existed and thrived for decades without it. We are here today because the path of least resistance is rarely the path of wisdom. If a company relies on misleading users about data exploitation, on choices that aren't choices at all, then it doesn't deserve our praise. It deserves reform. We must not look away from the bigger picture. In a time of rampant misinformation and algorithm-driven conspiracy theories, we can no longer turn a blind eye to a theory of technology that says every compromise is a good compromise. The longer the better. And all with the aim of collecting as much data as possible.

Too many are still wondering how far we can get away with it, when what they should be asking is what the consequences are. What are the consequences of prioritizing conspiracy theories and incitement to violence simply because of high participation rates? What are the consequences of not only tolerating but rewarding content that undermines public trust and life-saving vaccines? What are the consequences of seeing thousands of users join extremist groups and then perpetuating an algorithm that recommends even more? It is time to stop pretending that this approach is without cost, polarization, loss of trust and, yes, violence. A social dilemma cannot be allowed to become a social catastrophe.

I think the past year, and certainly recent events, have brought home to us the risk that this poses to all of us as a society and as individuals, more than anything else. The long hours spent cooped up at home, the challenge of keeping children learning when schools are closed, the worry and uncertainty about what the future will hold – all of these things highlighted how technology can help and how it can be used to damage. . Will the future belong to the innovations that make our lives better, fuller and more human, or will it belong to those tools that attract our attention and exclude everything else, compounding our fears and adding extremism to increasingly serve invasive?

Targeted ads above all other ambitions? At Apple we made our decision a long time ago. We believe that ethical technology is technology that works for you. It's technology that helps you sleep, doesn't keep you awake, that tells you when you've had enough, that gives you space to create, draw, write or learn, not just cool you down one more time. It's a technology that may take a backseat when you're hiking or swimming, but it's there to warn you when your heart rate increases or help you when you've had a nasty fall. And that all this always puts privacy and security first because no one needs to give up the rights of their users to offer a great product.

Call us level. But we still believe that technology created by people, for people, and with people's well-being in mind is too valuable a tool to abandon. We continue to believe that the best measure of technology is the lives it improves. We are not perfect. We will make mistakes. That's what makes us human. But our commitment to you, now and always, is that we will keep faith in the values ​​that have inspired our products from the beginning because what we share with the world is nothing without the trust our users have in it. To all who have joined us today, continue to move us all forward, continue to set high standards that put privacy first, and take new and necessary steps to reform what is broken.

We have progressed together and we must do more because it is always the right time to be bold and brave in the service of a world where, as Giovanni Bittarelli said, technology is at the service of people and not the other way around. Thank you so much.