14 DAY TRIAL // US President Barack Obama invited several high-profile CEOs to speak at the White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection.
From the technology sector, Apple’s Tim Cook was happy to oblige, while Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer, and Google’s Larry Page declined the invitation. Not surprisingly, since these companies run at the mercy of the customers who freely hand over their data in exchange for targeted services, as well as advertising.
We don’t sell our customers’ data, says Cook
Cook had every reason to take the stage and make Apple’s voice heard. The company’s business model doesn’t revolve around selling customer data to advertisers, and Cook reinforced that idea, noting that customer trust means the world to Apple.
“Our customer's trust means everything to us. We spent decades working to earn that trust. Privacy and security are built into every one of our products and services,” he said.
Information can decide if you live or not
He also noted that history has shown how sacrificing privacy can have devastating consequences.
The Apple CEO touched on topics like encryption and equality, “in a world where that information can make the difference between life and death.” He said that too many people don’t feel free to express their opinion, practice their religion and (something that Cook hit hard during his speech), “love who they choose.”
On Apple Pay, the southerner announced a partnership with the federal government to enable government-related transactions through Apple’s system. He also spent a couple of minutes reiterating the importance of safely storing credit and debit card information in digital format, and that Apple’s technology is well suited to do that today.
Cook stressed that convenience mustn’t come at the expense of security. Properly converging these two aspects has been a top priority when developing Apple Pay, he said. The Apple CEO’s 12-minute speech can be found embedded below.
