Cook denies Apple requested Facebook data, discusses data privacy in interviews

Posted:
in General Discussion edited June 2018
A day after bombshell newspaper report, Apple CEO Tim Cook says his company requested and received "zero" personal data from Facebook.

Tim Cook meeting with students prior to WWDC 2018


Speaking in a series of interviews on the first day of this year's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, Cook was adamant that Apple has not requested or received users' personal data from Facebook.

"The things mentioned in the Times article about relationship statuses and all these kinds of stuff, this is so foreign to us, and not data that we have ever received at all or requested -- zero," Cook told NPR in an interview published Monday night. Cook also reiterated comments he made during the Cambridge Analytica controversy in March, stating that Apple is not "in the data business."

The New York Times reported Sunday night that Facebook had reached deals with more than 60 device manufacturers, including Apple, Amazon, and Samsung, to share user data. The Times article had only mentioned Apple in passing, and included statements from Apple that the company had ""relied on private access to Facebook data for features that enabled users to post photos to the social network without opening the Facebook app, among other things," and also that it had cut off that access last September.

Cook repeated this to NPR, noting that Apple had "integrated the ability to share in the operating system, make it simple to share a photo and that sort of thing."

In another interview at WWDC, with CNN, Cook talked about the importance of privacy, although he did not mention Facebook by name.

"The privacy thing has gotten totally out of control," Cook told CNN. "I think most people are not aware of who is tracking them, how much they're being tracked and sort of the large amounts of detailed data that are out there about them."

Trade talks

Also in the NPR interview, Cook discussed trade policy, repeating Apple's stance in favor of free trade, as the CEO had discussed with President Trump in a White House meeting in late April

"Trade brings people closer together ... and I think that's true about countries as well," Cook said in the interview. "It helps a set of broader issues when there's trade going on."

Too much screen time

The new Screen Time feature


Also in the CNN interview, Cook admitted that even he spends too much time on his devices.

Cook told the network, in a televised interview, that he tried out the new Screen Time feature that was unveiled earlier Monday, and found that "I was spending a lot more time than I should."

"I've been using it and I have to tell you: I thought I was fairly disciplined about this. And I was wrong," Cook told CNN.

WWDC focused mostly on software in its keynote Monday, including unveilings of the latest editions of iOS, macOS and watchOS. The conference continues through Friday.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    A day after bombshell newspaper report, Apple CEO Tim Cook says his company requested and received "zero" personal data from Facebook.
    I’m going to use this sentence as an example of how overcooking can obscure meaning. I would have gone with “Tim Cook says his company did not request any data from Facebook, and did not receive any.”  

    The original sentence makes it look like Apple requested the data, and Facebook refused to hand it over. Still, I knew what you meant, simply because we know that Facebook will happily hand over everything on file for a cheeseburger and a tummy rub. 


    edited June 2018 aegeanfotoformatolspropodclaire1mike54tmaySgt Storms(trooper)mobiuswatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 7
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    This should come as no surprise, and it did occur to me at the time:

    If all your contacts, messages, browsing histories and game scores are already on the phone, then why does any device manufacturer need this data from Facebook?
    edited June 2018 Sgt Storms(trooper)bonobobwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 7
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    Basically the Times mentions Apple for page clicks. Tried and true tactic for the internet age. 
    racerhomie3claire1Sgt Storms(trooper)anantksundaramStrangeDayswatto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 4 of 7
    claire1claire1 Posts: 510unconfirmed, member
    Rayz2016 said:
    A day after bombshell newspaper report, Apple CEO Tim Cook says his company requested and received "zero" personal data from Facebook.
    I’m going to use this sentence as an example of how overcooking can obscure meaning. I would have gone with “Tim Cook says his company did not request any data from Facebook, and did not receive any.”  

    The original sentence makes it look like Apple requested the data, and Facebook refused to hand it over. Still, I knew what you meant, simply because we know that Facebook will happily hand over everything on file for a cheeseburger and a tummy rub. 


    LOL
    Sgt Storms(trooper)watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 7

    Apple works out a deal to push photos directly to Facebook. Facebook equates this in the media as: "APPLE GIVEN DEEP ACCESS TO ALL YOUR DATA SO DON'T ONLY POINT THE FINGER AT US FOR SPYING ON YOU AS OUR LITERAL BUSINESS MODEL!!!"

    Facebook corporate might finally be waking up to the idea that they've become the tools of 1984.

    StrangeDayswatto_cobrajony0Alex1N
  • Reply 6 of 7
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,834member

    Apple works out a deal to push photos directly to Facebook. Facebook equates this in the media as: "APPLE GIVEN DEEP ACCESS TO ALL YOUR DATA SO DON'T ONLY POINT THE FINGER AT US FOR SPYING ON YOU AS OUR LITERAL BUSINESS MODEL!!!"

    Facebook corporate might finally be waking up to the idea that they've become the tools of 1984.

    Indeed. Sadly the MSM is misreporting this. Even NPR’s broadcast of this story on the radio today had a sinsister, skeptical tone and concluded with ambiguous statements that implied they were doing something shady. 

    Why american media prey on one of their own corporate citizens with such glee while giving Samsung a pass, I’ll never know. 
    watto_cobrajony0Alex1NSgt Storms(trooper)
  • Reply 7 of 7
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member

    Why american media prey on one of their own corporate citizens with such glee while giving Samsung a pass, I’ll never know. 
    Because they all fight and scratch and claw at their eyes to suckle at the teat of the almighty PageClick!

    *See AI, if you’re going to overcook a sentence, then set the microwave to 1000 and watch it shrivel*

    watto_cobrajony0Alex1N
Sign In or Register to comment.