“The Apple Watch, which will go on sale in April, may be Tim Cook’s greatest personal and professional gamble, but it is consumer privacy that has demanded most of his attention in recent weeks,” Allister Heath reports for The Telegraph. “The chief executive of Apple is a radical privacy advocate and was on the last leg of a trip to Europe and Israel where he discussed this issue extensively.”
“In an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, Cook said that it is clear that there are many instances of people’s information being ‘trafficked around’ and that this is something his company abhorred. At the moment, however, consumers often ‘don’t fully understand what is going on,’ he added. ‘One day they will, and will be very offended,'” Heath reports. “Apple’s views on the subject stand in stark contrast to the position taken by Facebook and most other US tech giants, which are much more relaxed about these issues. It is also entirely at odds with the position adopted by David Cameron and most governments around the world, who believe that they need ever-increasing monitoring powers to combat crime and terror, dismissing the concerns of civil libertarians.”
“Cook disagrees fundamentally. ‘None of us should accept that the government or a company or anybody should have access to all of our private information. This is a basic human right. We all have a right to privacy. We shouldn’t give it up. We shouldn’t give in to scare-mongering or to people who fundamentally don’t understand the details,'” Heath reports. “But what about the threat of terrorism? Wouldn’t retaining privacy help those who seek to butcher us, such as the monster formerly known as Jihadi John? The Apple boss is clearly no softie or apologist on the matter. ‘Terrorism is horrible and must be stopped. All of us must do everything we can do to stop this craziness.’ He adds subsequently that ‘these people shouldn’t exist. They should be eliminated… You don’t want to eliminate everyone’s privacy. If you do, you not only don’t solve the terrorist issue but you also take away something that is a human right. The consequences of doing that are very significant.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote back in September 2014:
Think of The Children™. Whenever you hear that line of horseshit, look for ulterior motives. Fear mongers: Those who use of fear, scare tactics, and emotional appeals in attempts to influence the opinions and actions of others towards some specific end.
And, as we wrote earlier this month:
Do not support fear-mongers who espouse Big Brother-esque surveillance doctrine. Adhere to the U.S. Constitution.
Lastly, as we’ve quoited umpteen times:
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. – Ronald Reagan, March 30, 1961
Visit the Apple-backed reformgovernmentsurveillance.com today.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
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