Apple CEO Tim Cook has addressed the trade concerns between the United States and China at the China Development Forum. While addressing the issue, he has also been questioned about the Facebook’s user data breach scandal, to which he replied that this controversy is another sign that well-crafted regulations are necessary for the protection of users’ data.
This week, Facebook’s user data has been breached by Cambridge Analytica, which involved 50 million user’s data breach. According to Bloomberg, Cook has stated that this current scenario of data leak of those several million users has become “so dire” and wide-ranging that it's probably necessary for additional regulation.
“I think that this certain situation is so dire and has become so large that probably some well-crafted regulation is necessary,” Cook said after being asked if the use of data should be restricted in light of the Facebook incident.
In addition to that, the CEO has also stated such that such sort of possession of data with companies like Facebook shouldn’t even exist in the first place.
“The ability of anyone to know what you’ve been browsing about for years, who your contacts are, who their contacts are, things you like and dislike and every intimate detail of your life — from my own point of view it shouldn’t exist,” CEO said.
Cook has also described that Apple is concerned about the privacy of users since they might reveal important information unknowingly in such type of situations.
“We’ve worried for a number of years that people in many countries were giving up data probably without knowing fully what they were doing and that these detailed profiles that were being built of them, that one day something would occur and people would be incredibly offended by what had been done without them being aware of it,” he said. “Unfortunately that prediction has come true more than once.”
The CEO’s comments and Elon Musk’s deletion of his rocket company SpaceX’s Facebook pages suggests us that the tech giants are deliberately focused on the privacy protection of the users. This might intensify pressure on Facebook and to re-verify their privacy policies and restrictions regarding the user's data.
