Why Apple CEO Tim Cook 'Deeply Fears' Withering Away Of Privacy

Apple Inc AAPL CEO Tim Cook touched on privacy and its gradual erosion in a recent interview.

What Happened: Cook said in a conversation with John Simons, the executive editor of Time magazine at the Time100 Summit, “I fear deeply the loss of privacy.”

"If we feel that we are surveilled all the time our behavior changes. We begin to do less. We begin to think about things less ... In a world like that where we’re restraining ourselves, it changes society in a major way.”

Cook also talked about Apple’s privacy measures and complaints from companies that it is affecting their revenue. 

“It’s tough to say that a company, or anyone for that matter, should be able to step in and on an uninformed basis vacuum up your data,” Cook said.

Talking about his decision to come out as gay in 2014, Cook said he went ahead with it knowing it would dent his privacy. 

“I thought if I can only help one person by telling the world that I’m gay and that I’m proud of it, that I should do it and put my own desire for privacy to the side.”

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Why It Matters: Last year, Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta Platforms Inc FB warned against the impact of Apple’s privacy rule changes on its revenue. 

The social media giant took out advertisements in newspapers last year over Apple’s privacy changes.

Recently, Apple left the State Privacy and Security Coalition made up of Meta Platforms, Google-parent Alphabet Inc GOOGL GOOG and other major tech players, saying the group lobbied for weak privacy laws that benefit the industry instead of users.

Despite Apple’s privacy push, it is not immune from criticism over its submission to Chinese censorship and surveillance. 

Price Action: On Tuesday, Apple shares closed 1.8% higher at $148.71 in the regular session and fell 0.3% in extended trading, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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