Apple CEO Tim Cook has been a vocal critic of the government and tech companies for exploiting consumers personal data. So when the Electronic Privacy Information Center honored him as a champion of freedom Tuesday, Cook emphasized the importance of encryption and, without naming names, blasted Google and Facebook for forcing consumers to trade their data and privacy for convenient online tools in his acceptance speech.
“Our privacy is being attacked on multiple fronts,” he said, speaking remotely to EPIC event attendees in Washington, D.C. “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. They’re gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetize it. We think that’s wrong. And it’s not the kind of company that Apple wants to be.”
Apple is still recovering from its own privacy scandals, namely the infamous iCloud hack that exposed several female celebrities’ nude photos in 2014. But in recent years, the company has been pushing for greater security measures to better ensure consumer data is protected from advertisers and law enforcement with encryption.
“If you put a key under the mat for the cops, a burglar can find it, too,” Cook said. “Criminals are using every technology tool at their disposal to hack into people’s accounts. If they know there’s a key hidden somewhere, they won’t stop until they find it.”
Cook’s comments alluded to legislators and law enforcement agencies who want devoted access to mobile devices and online services for criminal surveillance purposes. And Apple’s refusal has drawn the ire of intelligence agencies and the Justice Department’s requests to “hand over the digital keys” to encrypted devices.
National Security Agency head Adm. Michael Rogers proposed companies such as Google and Facebook transparently give agencies access during a recent speech: “I don’t want a back door. I want a front door. And I want the front door to have multiple locks. Big locks.”
While most people feel powerless to keep their online activity private, many have begun taking precautions including the use of anonymizing technology such as encryption or private browsing, and companies such as Google have begun offering more options.
Now, about a third of Americans attempt to shield their online data from government surveillance. One in 10 people use encrypted messaging or private browsers such as Tor and nearly 60 percent regularly clear their browsing history or decline to unnecessarily provide private details, according to a Pew Internet survey. One in four use throwaway email accounts.
In closing, Cook said, “We shouldn’t ask our customers to make a tradeoff between privacy and security. We need to offer them the best of both,” TechCrunch reported. “Ultimately, protecting someone else’s data protects all of us.”