Apple and CEO Tim Cook have always branded the company asfundamentally differentfrom its contender on privacy . iOS devicescollect and use less dataon their users than company like Google and aregenerally considered more securethan their Android equivalents , and the fellowship has beenloudly tooting its own hornon the matter as it introduces contend service likeApple sign - infor third - company site . Apple and Cook have also been more aggressive fight hate speech and misinformation , banningconspiracy theoretician like Alex Jonesandmaking clear their viewthat Big Tech needs to do more .
In a commencement spoken language at Stanford on Sunday , Cook tookthis approach to the next layer , accusing certain Silicon Valley companies of operating as a “ chaos manufactory ” and of turn away to take province for what they have created . Though he did n’t name names , Cook took a pretty exonerated potshot at neglect blood testing startup Theranos and refer to issues that have beset ship’s company like Facebook and YouTube .
“ Lately it seems this industry is becoming better known for a less imposing innovation — the notion you could arrogate credit without take on responsibility , ” Cook told the Stanford graduates . “ We see it every day now with every data severance , every privacy violation , every unsighted eye turned to hate language , fake newsworthiness poisoning our national conversation , the untrue miracles in exchange for a unmarried drop cloth of your descent . ”
Screenshot: Stanford (YouTube)
“ Too many seem to think that unspoilt intention excuse away harmful outcomes , ” Cook said . “ But whether you like it or not , what you build up and what you create define who you are . It feels a bit crazy that anyone should have to say this , but if you build a topsy-turvyness mill , you ca n’t skirt responsibility for the chaos . ”
Cook added that the lack of privacy and digital surveillance endemic to the tech world today would have “ contain Silicon Valley before it got started ” and “ If we accept as normal and unavoidable that everything in our spirit can be aggregated , sell and even leak in the event of a machine politician , then we lose so much more than datum . We suffer the exemption to be human . ”
The CEO ’s advice to graduates : “ … At the very least , acquire from these mistakes . If you want to take credit , first acquire to take province . ”
Apple , of course , has its own fair ploughshare of outlet . It ’s been criminate ofanticompetitive business practicesand censorship on its App Store and is oppose anantitrust class action lawsuitin royal court . It has downplay its tax burden by capitalizing onloopholes and tax shelters , as well as faced allegation ofhorrific work conditionsin its Chinese supplying chain(though it hasreportedly made progress onthe latter issue ) . It ’s also complied with China’scensorhipanddata storagelawsrather than lose accessto its remunerative market .
Asthe Atlantic notedearlier this year , Apple has “ well better policies [ on privacy ] than its more data - athirst competitors , ” but still profits off of those competitors via its app - store model . Last class , Gizmodo fellow Rhett Jones point out that avoiding many of the disputation embroiling the respite of the industrydoesn’t make Apple your friend :
If Apple is give Facebook and Google headaches , we say that ’s great . But it ’s a thorny outcome when we ’re speak about a few billion - one dollar bill company exchanging places on the ladder as they endeavour to be trillion - dollar companies . It ’s just not enough for the least spoiled megacorp to keep the evil ones in check . Free market really do n’t patrol themselves , as the telecom clearly certify with their practice of tolerating each other ’s mini - monopolies .
On the other helping hand , Apple isn’tfaking blood tests , ignoring human right groups ’ plea tostop enabling genocide , actively produce algorithmic“extremist rabbit holes”to juice up engagement , work on a secretcensor - well-disposed search locomotive engine , or getting catch red - handed on itssecretive military drone AI project . So perhaps Cook has a flake of a point here — or at least the most good brand rhetoric .
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