Apple CEO Tim Cook defends Google search deal amid privacy fears

Apple CEO Tim
Cook.
Axios on
HBO/YouTube

• Apple CEO Tim Cook has defended taking billions of
  dollars from Google to make it the default search engine on the
  iPhone.
• Cook was asked by Axios if the deal compromises Apple’s
  no-nonsense approach to privacy.
• Google has been blighted by a number of privacy
  concerns in recent months, including a Google+ data
  breach.
• Cook launched a blistering attack last month on firms
  that he said hoarded “industrial” amounts of personal
  data.

Tim Cook defended taking billions of dollars from Google amid
concerns that the partnership undermines Apple’s no-nonsense
approach to privacy.

Google pays Apple more than $9 billion a year to be the default
search engine on the iPhone, according to a Goldman Sachs estimate seen by
Business Insider.

But Google has been blighted by a number of privacy concerns in
recent months. The company shut down its Google+ social
network for consumers in October after 500,000 accounts were
breached, while Associated Press found in August
that Google services on iPhone stored location data even when
users told them not to.

Despite the recent furors, Apple CEO Cook stood by its deal with
Google when asked if it compromised Apple’s privacy believes.
He told “Axios on HBO” on
Sunday:

“I think their search engine is the best. Look at what we’ve done
with the controls we’ve built in. We have private web browsing.
We have an intelligent tracker prevention. What we’ve tried to do
is come up with ways to help our users through their course of
the day. It’s not a perfect thing. I’d be the very first person
to say that. But it goes a long way to helping.”

Cook has long espoused Apple’s approach to privacy as a
“fundamental human right.” He has been vocal about the company’s
record as rivals, including Facebook and Google, have been
dragged into scandals this year.

Read more: Tim Cook mounted his most stinging
attack yet on companies like Facebook and Google that hoard
‘industrial’ quantities of data

Cook launched a blistering attack last month on firms that hoard
“industrial” amounts of personal data. Speaking at a privacy conference
in Brussels, he said the stockpiling of personal data
amounted to surveillance and should make us “very uncomfortable.”

“Our own information, from the everyday to the deeply personal,
is being weaponized against us with military efficiency,” he
said, calling for “comprehensive federal privacy law” in the US.

Cook did not mention Facebook or Google by name, but they were an
obvious target given they have access to giant pools of personal
information that allow them to personalize advertising.

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