Tim Cook on Privacy

Update: This article was published about 12 hours before Apple published A message from Tim Cook about Apple's commitment to your privacy.

Here's Part 2 of Charlie Rose's interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook:

I thought that the most interesting part of the second part of this interview was right near the beginning, about 3 minutes in, where he talks about privacy of customer data.

I believe him when he says:

How do companies make their money? Follow the money. And if they are making money mainly by collecting gobs of personal data, I think you have a right to be worried. And you should really understand what's happening to that data. And companies should be transparent about it.

But I think a lot of the biggest concerns that leaders of many Silicon Valley companies have with the way the NSA and CIA monitor communications is that they do not want the same scrutiny that people want to apply government surveillance to fall upon their companies.

In other words, I think some of these Tech Company CEOs want to be able to say, "Well our views on the value of your personal data are reflected in our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy," and change the subject as quickly as possible.

Kudos to Tim Cook for saying, "Our business is based on selling these. {He gestures off camera to the iPhones on the table.} Our business is not based on having information about you. You are not our product." I wish every company in our industry could operate that way.