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
A few years ago, users of Internet services began to realize that when an online service is free, you're not the customer. You're the product.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Free online services often profit by using user data rather than charging users directly.
Tim Cook's quote highlights a critical aspect of the modern digital economy: the notion that when a service is provided for free, the users themselves become the product being sold to advertisers and other third parties. This raises important questions about privacy, the value of personal data, and the ethics of how companies monetize user behavior and information.
Themes
DataPrivacyFree ServicesInternetTechnology
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about online privacy in a tech conference.
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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?'
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