Apple Takes a Swipe at Google in Open Letter on Privacy

Tim Cook reveals the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus at Apple’s Sept. 9 event. Alex Washburn/WIRED

Apple wants you to know that your data is safe in their hands, and on Thursday, the company launched a new website, complete with a letter from CEO Tim Cook, to explain just how your information is protected.

With this new site, which Apple says will be updated at least once a year and whenever significant changes are made to its privacy policy, the company is responding, once again, to the highly publicized hack in which nude photos of dozens of celebrities were stolen from their Apple iCloud accounts. The hack inspired panic among users and derision from Apple competitors, who seized on the opportunity to hawk their own products.

In launching this new privacy campaign, Apple is not only trying to make good on its post-hack promise to improve security measures, but also attempting to regain some much needed trust. The hack came at a particularly troublesome time for Apple—about a week before its highly anticipated announcement of a new mobile payment system called Apple Pay. Cook even uses the new site as an opportunity to take his own swipe at the security- and privacy-related practices of the competition.

The new site lays out how Apple encrypts things like iMessages and FaceTime and how users can better protect themselves, by enabling things like Touch ID and two-step verification. It offers information on phishing scams and warning signs users should look out for. It explains that on iOS 8, users’ photos, messages, emails, and more will now be protected by user passwords. And it says that Apple “cannot bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access this data.”

The site points out that this is not necessarily the case with competitors, and in his letter, Cook digs into the competition still further. He says that Apple’s basic business model, unlike so many other tech juggernauts, isn’t based on user data. Instead, Cook explains, “our business model is very straightforward: We sell great products. We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers. We don’t ‘monetize’ the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don’t read your email or your messages to get information to market to you.” He doesn’t mention Google by name, but he means Google.

He also says that Apple has never created a backdoor in its products and services for government agencies to access. “We have also never allowed access to our servers,” Cook added. “And we never will.”

It should be noted, however, that many competitors, including Google, have long used some security measures that extend beyond what Apple used. And WIRED’s Andy Greenberg points out that Apple users should still exercise caution when it comes to the data stored on their devices, as skilled security professionals and law enforcement may still be able to find loopholes that enable them to bypass even these advanced privacy features.

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