Four Of The World's Biggest Tech Leaders Weigh In On Data Privacy
Do You Know Where Your Data Is?
Facebook is still reeling from the discovery that political research firm Cambridge Analytica harvested private information on upwards of 87 million Facebook users, and now, the social media giant is once again under the microscope after it was revealed that Facebook allowed several hardware manufacturers access to personal user data. But Facebook's current woes around data collection and access has kicked off a bigger conversation in the industry around data privacy.
From earning and keeping user trust, to helping consumers understand how their data is being shared – and just how detailed that data is -- four CEOs of the world's biggest tech companies have recently shared their views on data privacy, their responsibility as data custodians, and what information belongs to the user.
Here's what Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft's leaders had to say.
Jeff Bezos
Amazon
CEO
Going way back, we just sold books. Then we started selling music and DVDs and electronics and toys and so on, and then we extended into electronic reading with Kindle. The reason customers have been receptive in large part to our new initiatives is because we have worked hard to earn their trust with them. Earning trust with customers is a valuable business asset. And if you mistreat their data, they will know; they will figure it out. Customers are very smart. You should never underestimate customers.
Tim Cook
Apple
CEO
I think the privacy thing has gotten totally out of control. And I think most people are not aware who is tracking them, how much they are being tracked and the large amount of detailed data that is out there about them. We think privacy is a fundamental human right.
Sundar Pichai
CEO
Users use Google because they trust us, and that's something that's easy to lose if you're not good stewards of it, so we work hard to earn that trust every day. One of the biggest concerns with data … is security of data. When you use Gmail, we work hard to keep your email safe from all kinds of attacks that are possible, and I think that's the framework from which we operate. But I think data always belongs to the user and as companies, we are only stewards of it.
Satya Nadella
Microsoft
CEO
Our focus has always been that it's not our data, it's our customers data, whether it’s the consumer side or the organizational or enterprise side. We are just the custodians of data and we keep it secure, and we use data with permission from users. That's been our core principle -- it's the core tenant with what we do with our cloud services and our platforms.