Apple CEO Calls Out Tech Rivals Ahead Of Privacy Update

Apple CEO Tim Cook called out other social media companies, accusing them of prioritizing user attention and data collection at the cost of allowing and even rewarding extremism and polarization.

“Too may are still asking the question ‘how much can we get away with?’ when we should be asking ‘what are the consequences?’ What are the consequences of not just tolerating but rewarding content that undermines public trust in life-saving vaccinations? What are the consequences of seeing thousands of users join extremist groups and then perpetuating an algorithm that recommends more?” he said Thursday.

Cook said “time to stop pretending that this approach doesn’t come with a cost.”

Apple will be rolling out new privacy control in the early spring to prevent iPhone apps from shadowing people. Although Apple didn’t yet say when the update will be out it’s likely to arrive in late March or some point in April. Apple had previously said it would come out early this year. Apple has been holding off to give app makers such as facebook more time to adjust to a feature that will require consent of an iPhone users to being tracked. It is expected that a significant number of users will deny that permission once it requires them to agree. Currently, to avoid being tracked by apps that track on iPhone users must take the extra step of going into iPhone settings to prevent it. Apple also released an 11-page report on how much apps can learn about their users in daily life.

Google profits from being the default search engine on the iPhone, for which they pay Apple an estimated $9 billion to $12 billion yearly. Google hasn’t said anything on apples new updated privacy plans. Google said a “handful” of its own iPhone apps will be affected by the new requirement, but changes are being made to them so they won’t be affected by Apple’s new controls. Google did not specify which apps they were referring to.

Facebook stepped up its attacks on Apple’s new privacy control last month in a series of full-page ads in several newspapers. On Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg questioned Apple’s motives with the changes, saying apple “has every incentive” to use its own mobile platform to interfere with competitors to its own messaging app. “Apple may say that they are doing this to help people, but the moves clearly track their competitive interests,” Zuckerberg said.