The North Star has always been the same, which for us, is about making insanely great products that really change the world in some way - enrich people's lives.
Tim CookRead
Our values are that we do think that people have a right to privacy. And that our customers are not our products.
Interpretation
Tim Cook emphasizes the importance of privacy and the ethical treatment of customers in business.
In this quote, Tim Cook asserts that the core values of a company should include a commitment to respecting people's right to privacy and acknowledging that customers should not be commodified or treated merely as products. He highlights a fundamental belief in the dignity and rights of individuals, especially in the context of technology and commerce, implying that ethical considerations should guide business practices.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about digital ethics during a tech conference.
The North Star has always been the same, which for us, is about making insanely great products that really change the world in some way - enrich people's lives.
There have been people that suggest that we should have a back door. But the reality is if you put a back door in, that back door's for everybody - for good guys and bad guys.
I don't subscribe to the view some people have in the industry that you should purposefully design products that do not last that long. I don't think it is good for anyone.
When technological advancement can go up so exponentially, I do think there's a risk of losing sight of the fact that tech should serve humanity, not the other way around.
Work takes on new meaning when you feel you are pointed in the right direction. Otherwise, it's just a job, and life is too short for that.
That has always been the objective of Apple: to do things that really enrich people's lives. That you look back on and you wonder, 'How did I live without this?'
Merging the ability to conduct surveillance that reveals every aspect of a person's life with the ability to conjure up the legal authority to execute that surveillance, and finally, removing any accountable judicial oversight, creates the opportunity for unprecedented influence over our system of government.
There has never been an unexpectedly short debugging period in the history of computers.
The engineering is long gone in most PC companies. In the consumer electronics companies, they don't understand the software parts of it. And so you really can't make the products that you can make at Apple anywhere else right now. Apple's the only company that has everything under one roof.
If the Internet teaches us anything, it is that great value comes from leaving core resources in a commons, where they're free for people to build upon as they see fit.
Our civilization depends critically on software, and we have a dangerously low degree of professionalism in the computer fields
Technology determines the possibilities of society. It doesn't matter whether you start out from a fascist state or a communist state or a free-market state
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