Apple CEO Tim Cook made the comments while attending the three-day China Development Forum in Beijing, where he was serving as co-chair, reports Bloomberg. When asked if the user of a user’s data should be restricted following the revelations that 50 million Facebook users unknowingly had their data shared with Cambridge Analytica, Cook replied:
“I think that this certain situation is so dire and has become so large that probably some well-crafted regulation is necessary. The ability of anyone to know what you’ve been browsing about for years, who your contacts are, who their contacts are, things you like and dislike and every intimate detail of your life–from my own point of view it shouldn’t exist.”
He went on:
“We’ve worried for a number of years that people in many countries were giving up data probably without knowing fully what they were doing and that these detailed profiles that were being built of them, that one day something would occur and people would be incredibly offended by what had been done without them being aware of it. Unfortunately, that prediction has come true more than once.”
And Cook isn’t alone, notes Reuters. IBM CEO Virginia Rometty said on Monday that in light of the Facebook revelations it’s time to give users more control over how their data is used:
“If you’re going to use these technologies, you have to tell people you’re doing that, and they should never be surprised. [We have to let] people opt in and opt out, and be clear that ownership of the data does belong to the creator.”
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