Tim Cook shoots against Facebook: “We are losing the freedom to be human”

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Jeff Horseman
Jeff Horseman
Jeff Horseman got into journalism because he liked to write and stunk at math. He grew up in Vermont and he honed his interviewing skills as a supermarket cashier by asking Bernie Sanders “Paper or plastic?” After graduating from Syracuse University in 1999, Jeff began his journalistic odyssey at The Watertown Daily Times in upstate New York, where he impressed then-U.S. Senate candidate Hillary Clinton so much she called him “John” at the end of an interview. From there, he went to Annapolis, Maryland, where he covered city, county and state government at The Capital newspaper. Today, Jeff writes about anything and everything. Along the way, Jeff has covered wildfires, a tropical storm, 9/11 and the Dec. 2 terror attack in San Bernardino. If you have a question or story idea about politics or the inner workings of government, please let Jeff know. He’ll do his best to answer, even if it involves a little math.

Apple
Tim Cook shares against Facebook: “We are losing the freedom to be human”

Apple CEO Tim Cook emphasized for years the importance of data protection

Apple CEO Tim Cook emphasized for years the importance of data protection

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shot a few days ago against Apple, now there was the tit-for-tat from Cupertino. Tim Cook criticized in a speech the mechanisms of the advertising industry.

It is just 20 kilometers separating two of the most powerful companies in the world from each other. When the roads are empty, you need not even half an hour, to nozzles from Palo Alto, California, neighboring Cupertino. But between Facebook and Apple, the two Silicon Valley giants, raging were drawn probably the most quick-tempered neighborhood dispute in the world, in the billions of users involuntarily into it. The conflict has been brewing for years – but now he seems to be out of control.

Only on Wednesday, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg was reported in the call with analysts, strong against Apple. The iPhone-manufacturer was “one of our biggest competitors,” he explained. Especially Apple’s planned tightening of data protection in iOS Apps is Zuckerberg a thorn in the eye, after all, his company earns money with Online advertising, which is tailored exactly to the preferences of the Users. The more Facebook about the preferences of its User knows, the more expensive the company can sell advertising.

That Apple is torpedoed in a few weeks on all of its iPhones this business model with the introduction of more stringent data protection mechanisms, keeps Zuckerberg for a liar: “Apple likes to claim that they do it to help the people,” he said. “But your steps clear to their competitive interests.”

Tim Cook hands out against the advertising industry

The answer was not long in coming. Apple CEO Tim Cook was the main speaker of this year’s opening Keynote of the EU data protection conference-CPDP. In it, he praised the General data protection regulation (DSGVO) as a progress in terms of consumer protection and demanded again that the United States and the Rest of the world, similar legislation should be adopted.

But above all, Cook spoke about his concerns regarding data protection and the business models of some Silicon Valley neighbors. On several occasions, the Apple chief reiterated the point that in many cases, the people were no customers anymore, but rather the product of which company to advertisers would sell. “If we accept it as normal and inevitable, that everything can be collected in our life and sold, we lose so much more than just data. We lose the freedom to be human.”

The name Cook never spoke, but it was clear to whom his criticism is directed particularly: Facebook. “In a time of rampant disinformation and Algorithms angeheizter conspiracy theories, we can no longer turn a blind eye to a theory of the technology, stating that every commitment is a good commitment – the longer, the better – and all with the aim to collect as many data as possible,” explained Cook. “It is long since time to stop, to do so, as if this approach would not be connected with polarization, with a breakdown of trust and, Yes, with violence,” he added.

His message is clear: If a business is based on the misleading of users, and the exploitation of data, it should not be praised, but to be reformed.

Facebook wants to lawsuits against Apple

Many corporations argue that their Online services would work so well and reliably, just because you know so much about their users. Tim Cook is convinced of the opposite: “no one has to exchange the rights of its Users, in order to deliver a great product,” he explains. An example of this is the Apple Watch, but it is. “It is a technology that can occur in the Background, if you go Hiking or swimming, but there is to warn you when your heart rate shoots up, or to help you if you had a bad fall. And with all of the privacy and security always come first.”

Facebook developed with the same network, Instagram and Whatsapp are some of the most successful Apps ever. Apple, in turn, is next to Google the biggest platform providers in the world. Both groups are dependent on each other and can actually, dare not break with each other, without risking a public Outcry. However, the crack seems to be so deep that Facebook is the next level of escalation prepared now, apparently: A report by the industry service “The Information” according to which a cartel is preparing Facebook is currently a lawsuit against Apple.

Source: Speech by Tim Cook

Read more on the subject of privacy:

Apple Software chief Craig Federighi in an Interview: “We have no interest in discovering everything about them”

Tracking in the Internet: So you are surfing anonymously through the network

– Expert on privacy: “I ask myself constantly, why people get involved all of this yet”

– “Chaos factory” Silicon Valley: Tim Cook criticized the Tech industry

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