Apple CEO Tim Cook said fully embracing technology as it improves shouldn’t come at the cost of losing one’s privacy.
Speaking to graduates at Duke University on Sunday, Cook called that mentality an “excuse.”
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“We reject the excuse that getting the most out of technology means trading away your right to privacy,” Cook said. “So we choose a different path: Collecting as little of your data as possible, being thoughtful and respectful when it’s in our care. Because we know it belongs to you. In every way and every turn, the question we ask is not what can we do, but what should we do.”
The tech giant’s speech come in the aftermath of a major data privacy scare in which Facebook revealed that the information of tens of millions of its users may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm tied to President Trump’s campaign during the 2016 election.
Evoking the activism from student survivors of the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting and the #MeToo movement, Cook also urged students to “be fearless.”
“Be the last people to accept things as they are, and the first people to stand up, and change them for the better,” Cook said.
