Apple chief executive defends firm’s privacy stance

PanARMENIAN.Net - Apple chief executive Tim Cook has issued a strong defense of the firm’s privacy stance, claiming that the company does not need to read emails or gather user data to generate profits, unlike other major firms in the market, chiefly Google, V3 reports.

Cook’s letter has been timed to coincide with new privacy policies from Apple for iOS 8. Cook explains that because Apple’s profits derive from products not profiles, Apple is not interested in gathering its customers' data.

“Our business model is very straightforward: we sell great products. We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web-browsing habits to sell to advertisers,” he said.

“We don’t 'monetize' the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don’t read your email or your messages to get information to market to you. Our software and services are designed to make our devices better. Plain and simple.”

Cook did acknowledge that the firm’s iAd businesses serves advertising to app users, but said this service does not use data from apps such as "Health and HomeKit, Maps, Siri, iMessage, call history, or any iCloud service like Contacts or Mail."

Cook also reiterated Apple’s statement that it has had no involvement with any U.S. government data-gathering schemes, such as PRISM.

“I want to be absolutely clear that we have never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products or services. We have also never allowed access to our servers. And we never will.”

The announcement comes at the same time as Apple released iOS 8 to users worldwide, offering a raft of new features including an improved keyboard and services such as HealthKit.