Apple never requested any personal data in deals with Facebook, says CEO Tim Cook

Amidst yet another privacy scandal that Facebook is at the centre of, it was revealed that the social media platform has been sharing user’s personal data with  several dozen smartphone companies. However, at the recent World Wide Developer Conference , CEO Tim Cook has cleared the air, stating that Apple requests zero personal data from Facebook.

According to a report by National Public Radio , Apple CEO Tim Cook said that “We’ve never been in the data business”, when asked about the report about Facebook’s alleged agreement with various device makers. “The things mentioned in the Times article about relationship statuses and all these kinds of stuff, this is so foreign to us, and not data that we have ever received at all or requested — zero,” Cook told the publication.

Cook says, with their partnership with Facebook, they simply made the ability to share in the operating system simpler, which did not need access to user data. He said that the deal is merely for user-convenience and that they have never been in the data business.

Earlier this week, a New York Times report claimed that Facebook and 60 other smartphone manufacturers have struck deals in order to retrieve user data like relationship status, religion and political leaning.

Apparently, despite changes to Facebook’s privacy policies over the years, many smartphone makers continue to have unrestricted access to personal data of users.

Calling privacy a “fundamental human right”, Tim Cook has been a big advocate at the same. At Apple’s developer conference, the ‘Screen Time’ app was announced, which allows parents to set time limits on how long their children can use apps. The new feature is supposed to be a part of iOS 12, which is expected to be out later this year.