Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, spoke at the European Data Protection and Privacy Conference. An entry you used to clearly and concisely explain the four pillars of privacy at Apple.
Privacy: a fundamental right for humanity
Federighi’s intervention, which we can see in the video above, begins at minute 49. The executive focuses on the four pillars of privacy, certain pillars that we already know from other interviews and which, although they are far from new for the company, they are always the most current and the most current. Those are:
- Don’t collect unnecessary data by minimizing data.
- Process as much data as possible on the device.
- Make it clear to customers what data is being collected and give them tools to control how that data is used.
- Protect data with security, including Apple’s unique hardware and software integration. Security is the foundation of privacy.
As Federighi explains, other companies “collect, sell and accumulate” all the user information they can. A practice that not only Apple does not do since its activity consists in selling equipment, but that it considers directly as “unacceptable”.
Now others are taking the opposite approach. They collect, sell and store all the personal information they can. The result is an industrial data complex, in which dark actors work to infiltrate the most intimate parts of your life and exploit whatever they can find, whether it’s to sell you something, to radicalize your views or worse. .
As Tim Cook has commented in several interviews before and now Federighi is repeating at Apple, they believe privacy is a basic human right. This can be seen in the way products are designed from their conception to collect the minimum necessary amount of personal data. Also in gestures and decisions such as integrating end-to-end encryption that other companies have also adopted later “As Tim Cook says, we want to be the engine of the pond that creates the biggest changes.
As per his statements a few days ago, Federighi then spoke about the App Traking Transparency (ATT) feature which will be activated in early 2021 and will allow us to decide whether we want to allow an app to follow us. A measure that has already generated complaints from advertising companies such as Facebook or Google who They warn that having to ask permission to follow us will result in lower income.
Of course, some advertisers and tech companies would prefer ATT never to be implemented. When invasive tracking is the business model, transparency and customer choice are not welcome.
As with the ITP, some players in the advertising industry are pushing against these efforts – claiming that the TCA will significantly harm ad-supported businesses. But we hope that the industry will adapt as before, offering effective advertising, but this time without intrusive surveillance.
Getting it right will take time, collaboration, listening skills, and genuine cooperation across the tech ecosystem. But we believe the outcome will be transformative.
Finally, Craig explains that at Apple, they don’t define success as being alone in a field. On privacy issues “we will be happy to see how the competition copies our work or develops innovative solutions from which we can learn”.
