库克再向“数据产业集团”开炮，呼吁保护用户数据隐私

在10月24日于布鲁塞尔召开的第40届数据保护和隐私专员国际会议（International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners）上，蒂姆·库克登上了讲台，火力全开。

他的目标是什么？这不是这位苹果（Apple）的首席执行官第一次针对他的硅谷同行，也就是他所谓的“数据产业集团”（data-industrial complex）。按照库克的说法，人们的个人数据以“军事般的高效”被“武器化”，技术被用于加剧分裂，“破坏我们对于真与假的感知”。

他表示：“公司收集这些数据，建立数字档案，他们对你的了解比你本人还深。这形同监视。”看看在10月24日下午通过视频参与大会的马克·扎克伯格会对此话题作何评论，想必十分有趣。当然，比起谷歌（Google）或Facebook，苹果的商业模式没有那么以数据为中心，该公司的首席执行官也没有理由不主动出击。

我们认为隐私属于基本的人权。无论你身处哪个国家，这一权利都应按照四条基本原则得到保护：

——蒂姆·库克（@tim_cook），2018年10月24日

库克说出了我呼吁很久的话：“如果没有用户的完全信赖和充足信心，我们永远无法兑现科技的真正潜力。”尤其是在今年Facebook和谷歌爆出丑闻，用户的数据流传到许多意想不到的地方之后，公众如今对科技极度缺乏信赖。

然而，库克建议的解决方案不像他起初的说法那么具备争议：“美国应推出全面的数据隐私法律”，就像欧盟的《通用数据保护条例》（General Data Protection Regulation，简称GDPR）一样。

《通用数据保护条例》在今年5月生效时，科技界的说客们声称这会成为互联网的灾难。但加利福尼亚州很快大刀阔斧地推出了新的隐私法。像《通用数据保护条例》一样，隐私法规定人们有权要求公司告知自己有哪些私人数据遭到储存，理由是什么，共享对象有谁。消费者也有权要求对方删除自己的数据。

无论公司喜欢与否，这些措施已经开始引入美国。就如Veeam的丹尼·艾伦10月23日在《财富》杂志的文章中所说，管理的支离破碎很可能会让跨国公司经营困难。而人们往往不记得，《通用数据保护条例》的出台很大程度上也是为了解决欧盟存在的类似问题，统一成员国在数据保护上的规定，从而降低企业未来的不确定性。

这就是为何苹果、谷歌、亚马逊（Amazon）和推特（Twitter）上个月都在抱怨没有一部有关数据保护的法律。如今最大的问题是这部法律会是什么样，对于硅谷而言又意味着什么，毕竟在那里，不是所有人都为此欢欣雀跃。（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

Tim Cook took to the stage on Octber 24 morning in Brussels, at the 40th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners. And he went in with all guns blazing.

His targets? Not for the first time, the Apple CEO took aim at his Silicon Valley peers and what he calls the “data-industrial complex.” According to Cook, people’s personal data is being “weaponized” with “military efficiency,” and technology is being used to deepen divisions and “undermine our sense of what is true and what is false.”

“Data assembled to create a digital profile lets companies know you better than you know yourself. This is surveillance,” he said. It will be interesting to see what Mark Zuckerberg, due to appear at the conference via video message on October 24 afternoon, will add on this front. Apple of course has a less data-centric business model than Google or Facebook, and a CEO who has no reason to be on the defensive.

We believe that privacy is a fundamental human right. No matter what country you live in, that right should be protected in keeping with four essential principles:

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) October 24, 2018

Here’s Cook neatly expressing what I’ve been yelling about for a long time: “We will never achieve technology’s true potential without the full faith and confidence of the people who use it.” Especially after this year, with its myriad Facebook and Google scandals about people’s data ending up in unexpected places, that faith is now sorely lacking.

Cook’s proposed cure, however, is not as controversial as it may at first seem: A “comprehensive data privacy law in the United States,” along the lines of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

When the GDPR came into effect this past May, tech industry lobbyists claimed it would be a disaster for the Internet. But then California passed a sweeping new privacy law that, like the GDPR, gave people the right to demand companies tell them what personal data of theirs is being stored, why it’s being stored, and with whom it’s being shared. Consumers will be able to demand their data is deleted, too.

Like it or not, these measures are starting to be introduced in the U.S. and, as Veeam’s Danny Allan wrote on October 23 in a Fortune piece, there’s a real risk of a regulatory patchwork that makes life difficult for businesses trying to operate across state lines. What people often forget about the GDPR is that it was largely designed to fix a similar problem in the EU, harmonizing data protection rules across member states to make life more predictable for businesses.

This is why Apple, Google, Amazon and Twitter all pressed for a national data protection law last month. The big question now is what such a law might look like—and what it will mean for a Silicon Valley where not everyone is ultimately singing from the same hymn sheet.