Apple CEO Tim Cook: ‘Privacy Is A Fundamental Human Right’

If recent results and the confidence of its CEO are any indication, maybe it can. Cook said that the government comes to the company for information “from time to time”, explaining that “if they ask for us in a way that is correct and has been through the courts, as is required – to the degree that we have that information – that we give that information”.

Microsoft and Apple are still competitors, but Cook said that there’s also a big opportunity for the companies to work together on products like Office for iPad. He talked about a marketplace that has changed from one where consumer and enterprise products were usually separate to one where they’re often the same.

Since Tim Cook has taken over, he’s been a little more available, showing up at events like the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference and, this week, at Box’s BoxWorks 2015. Even so, at the moment there are only “pockets” of enterprise-related mobile innovation, he said. “We don’t collect a lot of your data and understand every detail about your life”, Cook said. “Many customers want us to recommend an app”. “As this digital transformation progresses, enterprises will look to differentiate in the market using apps and data, or deep analytics”.

Apple is playing up its commitment to user privacy.

Cook also threw shade at Google, particularly the tech giant’s advertising practices which a few users see as invasive, although Cook made sure to not mention the company by name. “Our financial data, our health information, our conversations with our friends and family and co-workers”.

Cook told Siegel that he thinks government agencies are beginning to come to the same consensus that “encryption is a must in today’s world”.

Our view on this comes from a values point of view, not from a commercial interest point of view. Cook also discussed the allegations that the government may ask for back doors into the systems of Apple and other companies, stating that any back doors can just as easily allow access to “bad guys as well as good guys” and stated emphatically that for that reason, “I don’t support a back door for any government, ever”.

According to Apple, the new iOS 9 will use six digit passcodes as the new default on iPhones with the Touch ID feature, which will reduce the risk of hackers cracking a user’s passcodes by guessing. And that our customers are not our products.