Tim Cook Says Data Mining is Weaponized Against Us

At a privacy conference in Brussels, Belgium Tim Cook spoke about privacy, saying that data mining is weaponized against us and warned of the “data industrial complex” (via The Verge).

[White House Proposes an American GDPR]

Data Industrial Complex

Mr. Cook gave a passionate speech on privacy, and urges the United States to enact a similar privacy regulation like the E.U.’s GDPR.


Platforms and algorithms that promised to improve our lives can actually magnify our worst human tendencies. Rogue actors and even governments have taken advantage of user trust to deepen divisions, incite violence, and even undermine our shared sense of what is true and what is false. This crisis is real. It is not imagined, or exaggerated, or crazy.

California’s privacy law that was recently passed is a good start, but Mr. Cook calls for privacy regulation at the federal level, and he says an initiative like that would have Apple’s full support.

[Can This California Privacy Law Bring Back Net Neutrality?]

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