Apple CEO Tim Cook, long an staunch advocate for consumer privacy, says that he supports the idea of tech companies facing regulations that specify just how they’re able to use customer data. Speaking at the China Development Forum in Beijing on Saturday, Cook was asked for his thoughts on what should happen in the aftermath of Facebook’s latest privacy fiasco, according to Bloomberg’s recap of his remarks.
“I think that this certain situation is so dire and has become so large that probably some well-crafted regulation is necessary,” he said. “The ability of anyone to know what you’ve been browsing about for years, who your contacts are, who their contacts are, things you like and dislike and every intimate detail of your life — from my own point of view, it shouldn’t exist.” Cook didn’t specify what he wants to see in any potential legislation, but he made it a point to underline that lawmakers should take care in creating it. In an astonishing moment during an otherwise on-message CNN interview earlier this week, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg didn’t oppose the idea of outside regulation.
The Cambridge Analytica controversy has led people to review their Facebook settings, and many have been startled to discover the sheer volume of third-party apps that have access to aspects of their account and personal information. Others had no clue the extent to which Facebook has built portraits of their interests, likes, and other details pulled from their history of interacting with the social network.
“We’ve worried for a number of years that people in many countries were giving up data probably without knowing fully what they were doing and that these detailed profiles that were being built of them, that one day something would occur and people would be incredibly offended by what had been done without them being aware of it,” he said. “Unfortunately that prediction has come true more than once.”
Cook making these statements in China might raise some eyebrows, as Apple recently handed over control of Chinese iCloud accounts to China-based data servers to comply with local law. The company’s iPhones continue to offer strong encryption in China, but the concern is that iCloud backups could be more susceptible to government snooping.
Cook didn’t address the situation during his appearance at the Development Forum.
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