In a speech for the EPIC Champions of Freedom event in Washington, Apple CEO Tim Cook has accused Google and Facebook of undermining the privacy of their users. His ire was apparently particularly directed at these companies’ business models, which draw money from advertising that takes account of user-submitted personal data available to the search giant and social media site.
TechCrunch has reported Cook’s warning that these two companies, which he referred to implicitly rather than by name, are “gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetise it”, adding that Apple “think that’s wrong” and these companies are “not the kind of company that Apple wants to be.” They have become successful, he said, “by lulling their customers into complacency about their personal information”.
He added that, though Google and Facebook offer free services, “we don’t think they’re worth having your email, your search history and now even your family photos data-mined and sold off for god knows what advertising purpose”.
