In an op-ed written for the New York Times, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai has defended his company’s approach to privacy and user data, responding indirectly to critics who claim the company collects invasive amounts of personal information. Pichai says Google’s approach is to make privacy more democratic. He also called on the US to introduce new legislation protecting users’ data.
In the op-ed, Pichai contrasted Google’s approach to privacy with Apple’s. In a thinly veiled snipe at the iPhone-maker, Pichai said that “privacy cannot be a luxury good” that’s only available to “people who can afford to buy premium products and services.”
Apple’s Tim Cook has taken aim at Google in the past, notably telling attendees of a privacy conference in 2018 that modern technology has created a “data-industrial complex” where personal and private information is abused by platform-holders in pursuit of profit. Meanwhile, Apple has framed itself and its products as protectors of user privacy in its latest marketing blitz. The company is in a unique position to do so, since its business model is still overwhelmingly focused around selling premium devices. Even its cheapest phones, like the $749 iPhone XR, have an equivalent price to flagship handsets from other manufacturers.
Read more at the TheVerge.com