Apple CEO Tim Cook once again highlighted the need for stronger data privacy laws in an op-ed he wrote for Time Magazine this January. Cook stressed the need for comprehensive federal privacy legislation to stop companies like Google and Facebook from abusing their users.
In particular, Cook wrote that consumers should have the ability to delete their own data on demand aside from being informed about what information has been collected from them online.
Kyle Brasseur reported on Cook’s missive in a report published in Compliance Week:
Cook previously spoke out on the need for the U.S. to enact legislation similar to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) at a conference in Brussels in October. There, his message was “privacy is a fundamental human right,” and he laid out four principles he believes should guide legislation:
The right to have personal data “minimized,” with the idea that companies challenge themselves as to whether they actually need the information in the first place;
The right to knowledge. Users should know what data is being collected and why;
The right to access. Companies must recognize that data belongs to users; and
The right to security.
“But laws alone aren’t enough to ensure that individuals can make use of their privacy rights,” Cook wrote for Time. “We also need to give people tools that they can use to take action.”
