Our privacy is a basic human right

In the second part of an exclusive interview with British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, (first part here), called “Apple Boss: we have a human right to privacy”, Tim Cook makes clear his belief in the importance of privacy and the balance between privacy and security.

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. We shouldn’t give it up. We shouldn’t give in to scare-mongering or to people who fundamentally don’t understand the details.

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History has taught us that privacy breaches have resulted in very dire consequences. You don’t have to look back too far or be a historian to see these things. They are readily apparent.

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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 99.999pc of people who are good.”

This isn’t just anybody talking here: Tim Cook is the CEO of the biggest company in the world, a company that is now twice as big as the second-biggest. Furthermore, Apple makes and sells products that will have a huge impact on the matter, both in terms of use as well as trends. When Apple decides to include a powerful encrypting device in its products, when it suddenly emerges that a government cannot pursue a crime because the supposed criminals use an Apple product to communicate with each other that not even the company can decipher, the response cannot be “Apple is collaborating with crime,” rather that, “if this product does not guarantee privacy it’s no use to anybody,” or “the negative effects outweigh the positive ones.”

If Apple doesn’t provide this kind of privacy, another companywill: the availability of communications tools with powerful encryptment will only increase over time. Secondly, because nothing good will come from offering such tools if there is a back door that allows for their surveillance.

But our governments are opposed to the use of this kind of technology, and instead have embarked on a crusade to spy on us, telling us that this is all for our own good and will guarantee greater security: a palpable untruth. These are governments that believe being able to know what we are doing and saying as a means of controlling us.

We must, at all costs, and at all times hold on to the belief that our privacy is sacred: if you believe, or are tempted to believe that you have nothing to hide, or that you only use your smartphone or computer to chat with friends, or that you would prefer to submit your private life to scrutiny in return for the state being able to catch terrorists, then you must think about the longer term consequences of such notions, and discard them immediately.

Quite simply, anything that does not work toward preserving our privacy as a fundamental right is a false step, and very dangerous one.

(En español, aquí)