Tim Cook Says Tech Will Never Reach Its Full Potential, If People's Data Is Used Against Them

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been a vocal proponent of digital privacy for years, but now he's also begun pushing for regulations to back it up.

At a recent event, he spoke out against the consequences of major companies accumulating user data for their own benefit.

Images courtesy: Reuters

His address was to the attendees of the 40th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC), a privacy conference in Brussels. In it, he made an impassioned explanation of Apple's own commitment to privacy (and thereby the lesser dedication of its rivals) as well as detailed just how things can go very wrong if corporations proceed as freely with user data as they have until now.

Cook said modern technology is leading towards the creation of a "data-industrial complex", with which the data people generate everyday will be "weaponized against us with military efficiency." To him that's not just an issue of personal security, but something that threatens societies as a whole.

"Platforms and algorithms that promised to improve our lives can actually magnify our worst human tendencies," Cook said. "Rogue actors and even governments have taken advantage of user trust to deepen divisions, incite violence, and even undermine our shared sense of what is true and what is false. This crisis is real. It is not imagined, or exaggerated, or crazy."

Cook didn't specifically mention what could cause this, but he's clearly talking about incidents like the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal. Things there happened almost word for word as he described, where user data was abused to deepen racial and political divides, all for personal gain. He didn't name drop any corporations either, but the tirade was clearly directed at those like Facebook, Google, and Twitter.

Cook's speech though is a marked shift from the tech industry's stance compared to a couple of years ago. Then, they wanted to preserve self-policing in order to retain a semblance of independence. But thanks to how much of an eye-opener Cambridge Analytica has been, they now have to get on board with a government regulation policy, or risk alienating users now much more conscious of their data and its value.

Then again, it doesn't necessarily means they plan to support anything more than namesake regulations.

Also Read: The Guy Who Built The World Wide Web Is Building A 'New Internet', Where You Control Your Data

Cook praised the EU's "successful implementaton" of its newest data privacy law, GDPR. Not only does it force companies to offer users clear and concise choices as far as their data is concerned, but it also has them obliged to let people choose to be forgotten if that's what they want.

"It is time for the rest of the world to follow your lead," Cook said. "We at Apple are in full support of a comprehensive federal privacy law in the United States."

Every country should have four key data rights enshrined in law, he went on to add. The right to minimize personal data, the right to know what's being collected, the right to access that data; and the right for that data to be secured.