Apple CEO Tim Cook Appeals to Senate for Strong Privacy Legislation

Apple CEO Tim Cook issued a letter to the U.S. Senate today asking for strong federal privacy legislation. The letter is addressed to Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Chair of the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, as well as Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Chair of the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

The letter appears to follow and be in response to a recently proposed bipartisan law called the "American Data Privacy and Protection Act," which would define the types of data that businesses can gather and how they can use it.

Apple continues to support initiatives at the federal level to provide robust privacy protections for consumers, according to Cook's letter. Apple is heartened by Senate leaders' draft suggestions, according to Cook, who restated Apple's stance that privacy is a basic human right. While Apple battles for user privacy, Cook claims that "only Congress can provide strong privacy protections for all Americans."

"At Apple, we believe privacy is a fundamental human right," Cook says in his letter.

Cook admits the drafts of legislation would provide significant consumer protections, thus, the following letter is dedicated to express Apple team’s enthusiastic support for attaining the aim of a more profound personal data protection in the US. To contribute to the fulfillment of this goal Apple CEO cites products and features that protect users and their information by default "by minimizing the data we collect, processing as much data as possible on a user's device, giving users transparency as to what data is collected and control as to how it is used, and building robust systems to protect user data across all our products and services."

Cook concludes that "the continued absence of this important legislation will unfortunately perpetuate a patchwork approach to privacy rights that leaves too many without the rigorous standards we hope to see as a result of your hard work." That is the reason why Apple CEO expressed his urge to "advance comprehensive privacy legislation as soon as possible," while being fully ready to assist the U.S. Senate in this process.

Apple released a new commercial last month showcasing iPhone privacy features like App Tracking Transparency and Mail Privacy Protection, which are intended to provide customers more transparency and choice over how their personal data is collected.