14 DAY TRIAL // Google CEO Sundar Pichai says in a column published in The New York Times this week that “selling privacy as a luxury good” isn’t the correct approach from a customer perspective, pointing out that unlike rivals, his company is embracing a different philosophy.
While Pichai doesn’t directly name Apple in his featured article, the Cupertino-based tech giant is without a doubt the company Google’s CEO is referring to, especially as iPhones have long been marketed as devices offering uncompromised privacy.
Pichai, however, says privacy is a right that everyone has regardless of how much they are paying for a product.
“We’ve stayed focused on the products and features that make privacy a reality — for everyone. “For everyone” is a core philosophy for Google; it’s built into our mission to create products that are universally accessible and useful,” Pichai says.
“Our mission compels us to take the same approach to privacy. For us, that means privacy cannot be a luxury good offered only to people who can afford to buy premium products and services. Privacy must be equally available to everyone in the world.”
GDPR-like regulations needed in the US too
Google’s CEO also touched a more controversial topic, explaining that “Google will never sell any personal information to third parties.” Pichai says users are always in full control of their data, and the recently-introduced tools are living proof in this regard.
Pichai calls for more regulation in the context of data protection, pointing to the GDPR laws in Europe as an example of the direction the United States should embrace.
“We think the United States would benefit from adopting its own comprehensive privacy legislation and have urged Congress to pass a federal law. Ideally, privacy legislation would require all businesses to accept responsibility for the impact of their data processing in a way that creates consistent and universal protections for individuals and society as a whole,” he said.