Apple CEO Tim Cook: “Privacy is a Fundamental Human Right”
Apple CEO Tim Cook says the technology company believes that privacy is a fundamental human right.
Cook was speaking to privacy regulators from around the world gathered at the 40th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC2018) in Brussels on Wednesday.
The Apple CEO says no matter what country a person lives in, the right to privacy should be protected in keeping with four essential principles.
- First, companies should challenge themselves to de-identify customer data or not collect that data in the first place.
- Second, users should always know what data is being collected from them and what it’s being collected for. This is the only way to empower users to decide what collection is legitimate and what isn’t. Anything less is a sham.
- Third, companies should recognize that data belongs to users and we should make it easy for people to get a copy of their personal data, as well as correct and delete it.
- And fourth, everyone has a right to the security of their data. Security is at the heart of all data privacy and privacy rights.
Cook says technology is capable of doing great things.
“But it doesn’t want to do great things. It doesn’t want anything. That part takes all of us. We are optimistic about technology’s awesome potential for good — but we know that it won’t happen on its own.”
Cook says General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has shown that all that good policy and political will can come together to protect the rights of everyone.
