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Attempting to set Apple apart from its Silicon Valley brethren who have been caught up in a government surveillance scandal, Apple CEO Tim Cook says the iPhone maker is not in the business of collecting its customers' personal information.
In the final installment of a two-part interview with Charlie Rose, Cook said Apple has taken a "very different view" about the collection of customer information than other companies.
"Our business is not based on having information about you. You're not our product," Cook said. "Our products are these, and this watch, and Macs and so forth. And so we run a very different company. I think everyone has to ask, how do companies make their money? Follow the money. And if they're making money mainly by collecting gobs of personal data, I think you have a right to be worried. And you should really understand what's happening to that data, and the companies -- I think -- should be very transparent."
As opposed to Google and Microsoft, who scan their customers emails to sell targeted advertising or prevent spam or malware, Cook points out that its proprietary iMessage text messaging platform doesn't allow that kind of activity.
"We're not reading your email. We're not reading your iMessage," he said. "If the government laid a subpoena on us to get your iMessage, we can't provide it. It's encrypted and we don't have the key." |
