The Energy and Commerce Committee today sent letters to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Larry Page to probe the companies’ representation of third-party access to consumer data, and the collection and use of audio recording data as well as location information via iPhone and Android devices.
I believe the government is going to find some major differences in how these two companies view data, the collection of it, and the privacy of its customers.
The US government might find it useful to start here (PDF link): https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf
No doubt to the tune of Whole Lotta Love. With emphasis on the phrase, “I wanna be your backdoor man.”
The heart of the accusation is:
>”…users have consistently had access to apps through the App Store that you have highlighted as contradictory to Apple’s values, including Google and Facebook apps.”
I’m pretty sure if Apple banned Facebook and Google from the iPhone they’d be having a different conversation in front of Congress.
Agreed. For a lot of companies, they’re going to approach this with trepidation. Tim Cook is probably ecstatic about it, seeing it as a great opportunity.
I believe the government already has different views of these two companies, simply based upon the amounts of money they spend on Washington lobbyists. After all, isn’t that what drove the last Senate investigation of Apple?