Apple CEO Tim Cook has penned a letter to the US Congress urging lawmakers to enact federal privacy legislation. The law being requested would forbid app developers from passing user data to third parties without consent, and would crack down on targeted advertising. Apple is apparently better positioned than its competitors to comply with such a law.
Cook met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Thursday, and on Friday sent a letter to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Commerce committees, three of whom have collaborated on a draft privacy bill released earlier this month.
“At Apple, we believe privacy is a fundamental human right,” Cook wrote. “It is why we have consistently advocated for comprehensive privacy legislation and contributed to the process whenever possible.”
Cook boasted about his own company’s minimal data collection, but wrote that “only Congress can provide strong privacy protections for all Americans. The continued absence of this important legislation will unfortunately perpetuate a patchwork approach to privacy rights that leaves too many without the rigorous standards we hope to see.”