Apple CEO Tim Cook explained his company’s commitment to protecting user privacy in his interview for Recode’s “Revolution” TV special with MSNBC that will air tonight.
Watch: Apple CEO Tim Cook explains why ‘privacy is a human right’
“We care about the user experience. And we’re not going to traffic in your personal life,” said Cook.
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
Shirin Ghaffary was a senior Vox correspondent covering the social media industry. Previously, Ghaffary worked at BuzzFeed News, the San Francisco Chronicle, and TechCrunch.
“The truth is, we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer,” said Cook. “If our customer was our product, we could make a ton of money. We’ve elected not to do that.”
Watch a clip of Cook speaking below. You can watch the full hour-long interview about privacy, education, immigration, and jobs this Friday, April 6th, at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT on MSNBC.
And here’s a transcript of the discussion, in part.
The truth is we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer. If our customer was our product, we could make a ton of money. We’ve elected not to do that. We don’t –
(applause)
Our products are iPhones and iPads and Macs and HomePods and the Watch, et cetera, and if we can convince you to buy one, we’ll make a little bit of money, right? But you are not our product.
You are our customer. You are a jewel, and we care –
(laughter)
We care about the user experience. And we’re not going to traffic in your personal life. I think it’s an evasion of privacy. I think it’s – privacy to us is a human right.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
