Apple CEO Tim Cook denounced Facebook’s business model during a speech in Brussels, saying its core strategy leads to real-world violence and encourages overall distrust, 9to5Mac reported on Thursday (Jan. 28).
In his opening speech at the annual three-day Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection (CPDP) conference, Cook didn’t mention Facebook by name, but it was evident to those in attendance that he was referring to the social media giant, according to multiple reports.
His keynote address, “A path to empowering user choice and boosting user trust in advertising,” detailed Apple’s privacy and security concerns and the consequences of business models that rely on user engagement and data collection.
“If a business is built on misleading users, on data exploitation, on choices that are no choices at all, it does not deserve our praise. It deserves scorn,” Cook said in the talk, per 9to5Mac.
He pointed out that in many cases, people are the product that businesses are selling to advertisers. Cook praised GDPR for taking the lead on consumer privacy and security and said the U.S. and other countries have to follow suit.
Cook said he believes that approaching technology with only the end result in mind, results in the polarization of society, loss of trust, and violence. “As I’ve said before if we accept as normal and unavoidable that everything in our lives can be aggregated and sold, we lose so much more than data, we lose the freedom to be human,” he said.
Cook also hit home the point that advertising enjoyed decades of success without encroaching on people’s privacy. He outlined the latest tactics Apple has undertaken to improve privacy and said the upcoming iOS 14 will have an ad tracking transparency feature.
In an earnings call on Wednesday (Jan. 27) Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg condemned Apple’s app tracking transparency feature. He said Apple is its biggest competitor and implied that Apple is using privacy as an excuse to put Facebook at a disadvantage.
Last year set the stage for a strong approach to Big Tech regulation and 2021 could be seismic in changing the way companies interact with consumers. Apple’s upcoming privacy rules with iOS 14 has some mobile app developers seeking ways to get around them.
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