Apple chief executive Tim Cook says invading people’s privacy won’t stop terrorism
Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, has described invading people's privacy as ineffectual when it comes to tackling terrorism.
In an interview with The Telegraph, he said privacy was a “basic human right”, and that terrorists could escape being spied on anyway, since they are able to use encryption to avoid detection.
He said it would just result in “99.999 per cent of people who are good” being punished, as governments and companies gain access to personal information without permission.
"None of us should accept that the Government or a company or anybody should have access to all of our private information. This is a basic human right. We all have a right to privacy,” he said.
"We shouldn't give in to scaremongering or to people who fundamentally don't understand the details.”
He added that it would be easy for terrorists to disguise their communications if they wanted to:
Terrorists will encrypt. They know what to do. If we don't encrypt, the people we affect (by cracking down on privacy) are the good people. They are the 99.999% of people who are good.