Apple has simply responded to Congress’ inquiry on the way it protects consumer privacy.
The Home Committee on Vitality and Commerce last month sent letters to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Larry Web page asking concerning the firms’ knowledge safety and privateness practices. The five-page letter to Cook dinner requested detailed questions on how Apple collected consumer knowledge and what it used it for.
In a response Tuesday, Apple reiterated that it collects as little knowledge as doable as a observe.
‘We consider privateness is a basic human proper and purposely design our services to attenuate our assortment of buyer knowledge,’ Timothy Powderly, Apple’s director of federal authorities affairs, wrote within the firm’s response. ‘Once we do accumulate knowledge, we’re clear about it and work to disassociate it from the consumer.’
The letter paints Apple’s enterprise mannequin as totally different from these of different Silicon Valley titans, which regularly depend on promoting shopper data to advertisers.
‘The client shouldn’t be our product, and our enterprise mannequin doesn’t rely on amassing huge quantities of personally identifiable data to counterpoint focused profiles marketed to promoting,’ the letter reads.
Apple addressed questions on a spread of points, together with offline data collection via location providers, mobile towers, Wi-Fi hotspots and Bluetooth connections. Listed below are some takeaways:
Apple’s iOS system encrypts location data and does not affiliate that data with any identify or Apple ID. The iOS working system additionally completely deletes knowledge from an iPhone if the telephone does not connect with Wi-Fi or energy for seven days.
iPhones with out SIM playing cards will ship a restricted quantity of details about mobile towers and Wi-Fi hotspots to Apple if the consumer has enabled location providers. The data will probably be encrypted and is not used for focusing on promoting. If location providers are turned off, the iPhone will not ship any knowledge to Apple.
Apple additionally stated the corporate does not use the microphone on iPhones to hearken to prospects and it does not share data from Siri, its digital assistant, with third events.
As well as, Apple additionally supplied an inventory of knowledge that may be collected by third-party apps downloaded by iPhone customers. The listing contains contacts, photographs, Bluetooth sharing, well being, speech recognition and extra.
The committee did not instantly reply to a request for remark.
