<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
BRUSSELS (AP) \u2014 The head of Apple on Wednesday endorsed tough privacy laws for both Europe and the U.S. and renewed the technology giant\u2019s commitment to protecting personal data, which he warned was being \u201cweaponized\u201d against users.<\/p>\n
Speaking at an international conference on data privacy, Apple CEO Tim Cook applauded European Union authorities for bringing in a strict new data privacy law in May and said the iPhone maker supports a U.S. federal privacy law.<\/p>\n
Cook\u2019s speech, along with video comments from Google and Facebook top bosses, in the European Union\u2019s home base in Brussels, underscores how the U.S. tech giants are jostling to curry favor in the region as regulators tighten their scrutiny.<\/p>\n
Data protection has become a major political issue worldwide, and European regulators have led the charge in setting new rules for the big internet companies. The EU\u2019s new General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, requires companies to change the way they do business in the region, and a number of headline-grabbing data breaches have raised public awareness of the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn many jurisdictions, regulators are asking tough questions. It is time for rest of the world, including my home country, to follow your lead,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe at Apple are in full support of a comprehensive federal privacy law in the United States,\u201d he said, to applause from hundreds of privacy officials from more than 70 countries.<\/p>\n
In the U.S., California is moving to put in regulations similar to the EU\u2019s strict rules by 2020 and other states are mulling more aggressive laws. That\u2019s rattled the big tech companies, which are pushing for a federal law that would treat them more leniently.<\/p>\n
Cook warned that technology\u2019s promise to drive breakthroughs that benefit humanity is at risk of being overshadowed by the harm it can cause by deepening division and spreading false information. He said the trade in personal information \u201chas exploded into a data industrial complex.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur own information, from the everyday to the deeply personal, is being weaponized against us with military efficiency,\u201d he said. Scraps of personal data are collected for digital profiles that let businesses know users better than they know themselves and allow companies to offer users \u201cincreasingly extreme content\u201d that hardens their convictions, Cook said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is surveillance. And these stockpiles of personal data serve only to enrich the companies that collect them,\u201d he said. \u201cThis should make us very uncomfortable. It should unsettle us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cook\u2019s appearance was one-up on his tech rivals and showed off his company\u2019s credentials in data privacy, which has become a weak point for both Facebook and Google. That is facilitated also by the fact that Apple makes most of its money by selling hardware like iPhones instead of ads based on user data.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the spotlight shining as directly as it is, Apple have the opportunity to show that they are the leading player and they are taking up the mantle,\u201d said Ben Robson, a lawyer at Oury Clark specializing in data privacy. Cook\u2019s appearance \u201cis going to have good currency,\u201d with officials, he added.<\/p>\n
His speech comes a week after Apple unveiled expanded privacy protection measures for people in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, including allowing them to download all personal data held by Apple. European users already had access to this feature after GDPR took effect. Apple plans to expand it worldwide.<\/p>\n
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google head Sundar Pichai sent brief video remarks to the annual meeting of global data privacy chiefs.<\/p>\n
Zuckerberg said the social network takes seriously its \u201cbasic ethical responsibility\u201d to safeguard personal information but added that \u201cthe past year has shown we have a lot more work to do,\u201d referring to a big data breach and the scandal over the misuse of data by political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.<\/p>\n
He also said the company is investing in measures to beef up protection, including building a new tool to let users clear their browsing activity and deploying artificial intelligence to detect fake accounts and take down extremist content.<\/p>\n
They both said they supported regulation, with Pichai noting Google recently proposed a legislative framework that would build on GDPR and extend many of its principles to users globally.<\/p>\n
The International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners , held in a different city every year, normally attracts little attention but its Brussels venue this year takes on symbolic meaning as EU officials ratchet up their tech regulation.<\/p>\n
The 28-nation EU took on global leadership of the issue when it launched GDPR. The new rules require companies to justify the collection and use of personal data gleaned from phones, apps and visited websites. They must also give EU users the ability to access and delete data, and to object to data use.<\/p>\n
GDPR also allows for big fines benchmarked to revenue, which for big tech companies could amount to billions of dollars.<\/p>\n
In the first big test of the new rules, Ireland\u2019s data protection commission, which is a lead authority for Europe as many big tech firms are based in the country, is investigating Facebook\u2019s data breach, which let hackers access 3 million EU accounts.<\/p>\n
Google, meanwhile, shut down its Plus social network this month after revealing it had a flaw that could have exposed personal information of up to half a million people.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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