In his 15 years as Apple’s top executive, Tim Cook has projected an image of the company as a champion of privacy rights. As he prepares to leave that role in September, that legacy has come back into focus. Cook trumpeted the iPhone maker’s commitment to privacy at home in the US and the EU, calling privacy “a fundamental right” but his acquiescence to government demands abroad call his dedication to protecting users into question.
Cook cemented Apple’s pro-privacy reputation in 2015 when he resisted the FBI’s demands to unlock the iPhone of a mass shooter in San Bernardino, California. The company played up that public image in 2019 with playful ads that read, “Privacy. That’s iPhone”, positioning Apple as the obvious choice for people who cared about privacy. In 2021, Apple added a feature, App Tracking Transparency, that allowed iPhone owners to limit an app’s ability to track their mobile activity. Apps that tracked users without permission would be removed, Cook said.
