What you need to know
- Craig Federighi sat down with Joanna Stern for a new interview.
- The two talked about App Tracking Transparency, privacy in general, and if Craig could take over as CEO when Tim Cook leaves.
With the release of iOS 14.5 earlier today, iPhone users can now decide if they want apps to track them or not.
The feature is called App Tracking Transparency, and the feature has received backlash from advertising companies like Facebook who want that user data to help it sell more targeted advertisements to advertisers. On the other hand, it is a huge leap in privacy for iPhone users, who can now tell an app not to track them at all, giving them much more control over what data they share with all of the apps on their iPhone.
In order to get into this privacy topic further Craig Federighi, Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering sat down with The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern for an interview about App Tracking Transparency and privacy in general.
The latest update to the iPhone's operating system features a new privacy feature called App Tracking Transparency. WSJ's Joanna Stern spoke exclusively with Apple's Craig Federighi about the decisions behind the feature, as well as Apple's interest in mixed reality—and the possibility he'll replace Tim Cook as CEO. Photo illustration: Alex Kuzoian for The Wall Street Journal
Federighi says that, while they expected a negative response from some about the new feature, they believe that users deserve the choice of whether an app tracks them or not.
"We really just want to give users a choice ... These devices are so intimately a part of our lives and contain so much of what we're thinking and where we've been and who we've been with that users deserve and need control of that information ... The abuses can range from creepy to dangerous."
