Apple shares Tim Cook's speech about privacy on its YouTube channel

Apple has shared a speech by CEO Tim Cook on its main YouTube channel on Tuesday night. The speech, which Cook gave at the European Union's virtual Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection conference last week, focused on the importance of privacy.

The speech focuses on Apple's commitment to privacy and criticizes businesses whose models are built on gathering as much data on their users as possible. Many thought that Cook had Facebook in mind when he stated the following from the speech:

"If a business is built on misleading users, on data exploitation, on choices that are not choices at all, it does not deserve our praise. It deserves reform."

As the video description explains, Cook gave the remarks on January 28th to a group of academic, government, civil, and private sector leaders.

On January 28, 2021, Apple CEO Tim Cook delivered remarks at Computers, Privacy & Data Protection Conference: Enforcing Rights in a Changing World. The virtual conference — hosted annually in Brussels, Belgium — is one of the foremost international privacy and technology conferences bringing together leaders from academia, government, civil society and the private sector.

The CEO also gave an interview to Fast Company soon after the speech, once again focusing on the company's commitment to privacy. Cook described privacy as an issue with consequences as dire as climate change:

"In terms of privacy—I think it is one of the top issues of the century," he tells me. "We've got climate change—that is huge. We've got privacy—that is huge. . . . And they should be weighted like that and we should put our deep thinking into that and to decide how can we make these things better and how do we leave something for the next generation that is a lot better than the current situation."

You can watch Cook's full address below: