Apple believes privacy is a "fundamental human right," or so CEO Tim Cook told CNN in the wake of WWDC last spring. He condemned the data collection spree he saw from competitors as “out of control,” and he worried that “most people” have no idea how often they’re being tracked.
Bold words, yes. It was easy to admire Apple in the moment. They were words we needed to hear—wanted to hear—particularly in a decade rocked by the Cambridge Analytica scandal and data breaches at companies like Uber and Yahoo, to say nothing of Google's habit of sifting through our Gmail in order to better pepper our browsing experience with ads. Against such a backdrop, Apple looked like a knight in shining, brushed aluminum armor.
