Video: Tim Cook explains Apple’s new privacy features to European customers

Apple has turned protecting user privacy into a valuable marketing tool, and now its chief executive has addressed fans in Europe with a video highlighting the new privacy features.


STORY HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Apple UK posts a video about iOS 15’s new privacy features.
  • The circa seven-minute video stars Apple CEO Tim Cook.
  • Apple has turned privacy into a business opportunity.

A an image with the Apple logo and the word "privacy" set against a black background

Video: Tim Cook on Apple’s latest privacy features

Running six minutes and fifteen minutes long, the video reiterates Apple’s position that privacy should be viewed as a fundamental human right while extolling extols the new privacy features coming with iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS 12 Monterey, tvOS 15, watchOS 8 and iCloud this fall.

How to export your Apple ID account data

Cook opens the privacy-focused video by saying that Apple’s competitors have been busy “making customers the product.” The line should ring familiar to those who have followed Apple’s privacy practices in the past years as Apple has happily used it often to slam its competitors that depend on ad-driven business models, namely Facebook.

We know that privacy is a priority for our users in Europe and around the world. It’s why we’re always striving to set a higher bar, with new tools that put people in the driver’s seat when it comes to managing your own data.

Watch the video embedded right ahead.

The footage was published by Apple UK’s channel on YouTube.

iOS 15 brings new privacy features

The video includes highlights of what’s new in terms of privacy in the upcoming OS updates, while the rest is a combination of relevant WWDC videos from this and last year.

With the upcoming OS updates, Cook said, Apple delivers new features like the new privacy “nutrition labels” on the App Store and the App Tracking Transparency initiative (apps must seek permission before tracking you across other apps and websites),

These features help give you peace of mind, the CEO said, by strengthening your control and freedom to use technology without “worrying about who is looking over your shoulder”.

Apple, privacy and right to data portability

“At Apple, our commitment is to give users choice over how their data is used and to build privacy and security into everything we make,” Cook said.

The last part is not entirely true—just a few years back, if you recall, Apple refused to offer its customers a straightforward tool to download all your Apple ID data. Apple was so stubborn and wouldn’t change its stance until Europe’s GDPR law made data portability a priority.