Tim Cook Weighs In on Facebook Controversy, Backs Data Privacy Regulations for Social Media
Apple CEO Tim Cook has finally spoken out about the recent scandal that social media giant Facebook has found itself mired in. In his statement, he called the current state of privacy protection "dire" and called for more regulation in this regard.
"I think that this certain situation is so dire and has become so large that probably some well-crafted regulation is necessary," Cook said, as he answered questions during the annual China Development Forum in Beijing on Saturday, March 24, according to Bloomberg.
Along the course of the session on global inequality, the topic of the use of user data, especially in the wake of the Facebook controversy regarding Cambridge Analytica, came up.
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"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," Cook emphasized.
The Apple CEO added that he has been concerned about people giving up personal data, not just in the U.S. but in many countries as well. There are detailed profiles that are being built from the data that people had provided, and recent incidents may result to people being "incredibly offended by what had been done without them being aware of it," Cook noted.
"Unfortunately that prediction has come true more than once," he observed, as quoted by Business Insider.
Apple is one of the top tech companies that have not depended on advertising, with most of its revenue coming from sales of devices. To this end, the company has adopted a stance that seeks to protect user privacy whenever possible, even at the expense of ad companies that rely on user tracking ads.
Tim Cook is not the only tech industry leader to call for more oversight into Facebook's use of user data. Elon Musk, now a supporter of the #deletefacebook movement, has also taken the SpaceX and Tesla pages off the platform, as well as his own.
