Apple's Cook Takes Aim at Google in His Speech on Privacy and Encryption

Advertisement
By NDTV Correspondent | Updated: 3 June 2015 13:08 IST
Apple's Cook Takes Aim at Google in His Speech on Privacy and Encryption

Tim Cook is not afraid of taking aim at Google and the Apple CEO was at it again on Monday.

Cook was being honoured for "corporate leadership" at an event organised by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in Washington where he gave a 'blistering' remote speech on encryption and privacy, with Google products and services never too far from his mind.

"Like many of you, we at Apple reject the idea that our customers should have to make tradeoffs between privacy and security," Techcrunch quotes Cook as saying. "We can, and we must provide both in equal measure. We believe that people have a fundamental right to privacy. The American people demand it, the constitution demands it, morality demands it."

Cook went on to address companies like Google and Facebook a little bit more directly.

Advertisement

"I'm speaking to you from Silicon Valley, where some of the most prominent and successful companies have built their businesses by lulling their customers into complacency about their personal information," Cook added. "They're gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetise it. We think that's wrong. And it's not the kind of company that Apple wants to be."

Cook went on to criticise companies that mine customer data, throwing in a not so subtle reference at the recently launched Google Photos service.

Advertisement

"We believe the customer should be in control of their own information. You might like these so-called free services, but 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. And we think some day, customers will see this for what it is."

(Also see:  Google Photos With Free, Unlimited Storage: 10 Things You Need to Know)

The Apple CEO next spoke on the subject of encryption, which has been a hot topic in Washington recently. The FBI director has spoken against efforts by Google, Apple, and others to add encryption to their services, and Cook believes any efforts to thwart encryption would be detrimental to consumers' interests.

Advertisement

"Removing encryption tools from our products altogether, as some in Washington would like us to do, would only hurt law-abiding citizens who rely on us to protect their data. The bad guys will still encrypt; it's easy to do and readily available."

 

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Advertisement

Related Stories

Popular Mobile Brands
  1. OnePlus Pad 3 With 12,140mAh Battery Launched in India: Check Features
  2. AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 4 May Get New Head Gestures, Camera Control, More
  3. OnePlus 13s Review
  1. Hugging Face Releases SmolVLA Open Source AI Model For Robotics Workflows
  2. Redmi Pad 2 With 9,000mAh Battery, MediaTek Helio G100 Ultra Chip Launched: Price, Specifications
  3. Alphabet CEO Expects to Keep Hiring Engineers as AI Advances
  4. Amazon Said to Be Preparing to Test Humanoid Robots for Deliveries
  5. Google Doubles Gemini 2.5 Pro Rate Limit for Google AI Pro Subscribers
  6. Apple Said to Have Given iPhone Repair Business to Tata India as Partnership Expands
  7. Huawei Pura 80 Pro, Pura 80 Pro+ Design Teased; Pre-Reservation Begin
  8. Mistral Code AI-Powered Coding Assistant Introduced for Enterprise Developers
  9. Nothing Headphone 1 Launch Date Set for July 1, to Arrive Alongside Nothing Phone 3
  10. Ethereum Foundation Announces Overhauled Treasury Strategy Amid Scaling Push
Gadgets 360 is available in
Download Our Apps
Available in Hindi
© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2025. All rights reserved.