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Tim Cook Defends Google Deal In Spite Of Apple’s Focus On Privacy


steven36

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Tim Cook (Apple CEO) has defended his firm’s agreement with Google, in spite of his earlier criticism of the search behemoth for its inconsiderate attitude toward consumer data. The comments, which were aired as fraction of an interview on HBO on Axios, came in response to Cook being questioned why he was calm taking billions from Google to make it default search engine for Apple, in spite of wanting to defend consumer privacy.

 

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To reply this question, Cook emphasized the privacy and security standards that Apple develops unswervingly into its Safari browser while still permitting its consumers access to “the most excellent” search engine.

 

”I believe Google’s search engine is the finest. Look at what we have done with the controls we have developed in. We include private Internet browsing,” Cook claimed. “We have intelligent tracker avoidance. What we have attempted to do is come up with methods to assist our consumers via their course of the day. It is not an ideal thing. I would be the very first individual to state that. But it goes a long way to assisting,” Cook added.

 

On a related note, Cook is likely to praise new privacy rules from Europe. In addition to this, he is expected to voice the firm’s support for sturdy laws in the United States and Europe to defend the employment of data. Cook will define Europe’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) as an instance of how “good politics and policy will can join hands to defend everybody’s rights.”

 

Cook was also likely to support a widespread federal privacy rake in the United States. This is the most influential statement to date made by Apple. Concerns on how data is employed and how users can protect their personal data have come under the limelight lately following huge violations of data privacy comprising millions of social media and Internet consumers in the United States and Europe.

 

Apple has used its policy as a stick to beat on ad-driven companies like Facebook. “This is surveillance and these stockpiles of data serve only to make rich the companies that collect them,” Cook told the audience at an EU privacy conference in October. He added, “This should make us uncomfortable.” So it should probably make Cook a little uncomfortable to talk about the fact that Apple gets paid by Google to make its search engine the default on iOS devices. But when asked about it by Axios, he was relatively sanguine. Here’s his full comment on the matter:

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One: I think their [Google’s] search engine is the best and that’s very important. But two: Look at what we’ve done with the controls we’ve built in. We have private web browsing. We have an intelligent tracker prevention. What we’ve tried to do is come up with ways to help our users through their course of the day. It is not a perfect thing. I’d be the very first person to say that. But it goes a long way to helping.

 

Private web browsing is fine and the intelligent tracker prevention in Safari helps users control whether cookies follow them around the web, although Google quickly found a workaround after the feature was announced. But Tim’s argument that Google is the browser of choice is difficult to argue with. Apple could set the default search engine to one that’s focused on privacy like DuckDuckGo, but that would be like selling a Bentley with fake leather seats—or at least that’s what Cook seems to be arguing. He did not specifically address the annual revenue Apple takes in from Google, but financial analysts estimate it lies between $3 billion and $9 billion.

 

DuckDuckGo could never pay Apple that kind of cash, and with growth in device sales slowing down, Apple is increasingly relying on services to create new opportunities. In the fourth quarter of 2018, Apple had $62.9 billion in revenue, $10 billion of which came from services like iCloud, Apple Music, and that lucrative deal with Google.

 

Should Apple be shamed over its hypocritical willingness to reap profits from a company it considers to be unethical? Sure. But this is just how Apple rolls. It makes some great decisions and some great devices. It also uses terrible labor practices for assembling those devices, opposes the right to repair, and contributes to untold amounts of e-waste. For now, it’s just lucky that so many other companies are so clearly much more evil on the surface. As for tech being evil, in general, Cook said, “Technology is good or evil, as you put it, depending upon the creator and many times it’s not that the creator set out to do evil it’s that there wasn’t an anticipation of these negative things that it could be used for.”

 

Sources : [Market News Press]  [Gizmodo]

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