Apple CEO Tim Cook on privacy: It's become a "crisis"

Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, called online privacy a "crisis" in an interview with ABC News, confirming the company's privacy policy, as companies such as Facebook and Google have come under scrutiny of consumer data management.

"Privacy itself has become a crisis," Cook ABC told Diane Sawyer. "That is the proportion – a crisis."

Unlike companies like Google and Facebook, Apple's business is not focused on advertising, and therefore it is not helpful to collect data to improve ad targeting.

"You are not our product," he said. "Our products are iPhones and iPads. We treasure your data. We will help you keep it private and keep it safe."

Cook cites the huge amount of personal information available online, explaining why privacy has become such an important issue to address. "People who track the internet know much more about you than if someone looks in your window," he said. "Much more."

Read more: Apple says products such as Apple Watch and AirPods are doing so well, it's the wearables business that is as big as a Fortune 200 company

Cook is known to be a vocal tale for consumers privacy. In January, he published an update in time that required government regulation that would make it harder for businesses to collect data while giving greater transparency to consumers. He also called for a breakdown of computer executives who transfer consumption data between companies. Before it appeared on Vice News Tonight and expressed its support for the government.

Apple does not benefit from collecting data on consumers, as businesses with thriving advertising companies would. But it does make money from the partnership with Google that secures its search engine by default on the iPhone Safari browser. Apple and Google have not published the terms of the agreement, but Goldman Sachs analysts estimate in September that Google could pay Apple as much as $ 1[ads1]2 billion in 2019.

Sawyer pointed out that Apple deserves its deal with Google, which has come under control with regard to data collection policies and privacy issues. Cook said it works with Google "because we think it's the best browser."

Although Cook described privacy as a crisis, he added that he thinks it's a "fixable" problem. "And we just have to, as we've done every other time, when we get together, it's amazing what we can do. And we're very allies in that fight."

Cook also raised the worrying concerns about video time in his interview with ABC News and said he didn't want consumers to use their iPhones too much. "But I don't want you to use the product much," he said. "In fact, if you use it a lot, it's probably something we should do to make your use more productive."

The comments come after a report from The New York Times, found that Apple had removed apps that help parents manage screen time from the App Store after the release of their own iPhone screen management feature in September. Apple then published a statement saying it removed these apps because they used a technology known as mobile device management, or MDM, which is intended for businesses that need to handle sensitive data on employee devices.

Cook told ABC News he is open to suggestions from parents when it comes to screen time management and parental control, saying that it is "something we have to fix together".