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Creating dedicated tools and a website to explain privacy issues and protect consumer rights

Key facts

  • More than 90% of consumers are at least “somewhat” concerned about data privacy and how companies are using customer data, according to a Gigya study in 2015.
  • Apple¹ was one of nine technology and internet services firms to rate 5/5 stars under the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) criteria for an assessment regarding government data requests.
  • Apple has committed to never giving any government agency access to its servers.

Uniqueness

  • The EEF notes a general transformation among major internet players to be more transparent with users about their data requests over the past four years.
  • Apple has made substantial updates to its privacy policies and revamped their website to offer a more transparent and user friendly view on how data is collected and used by the company.

Value

  • Impact on business: Under new proposed regulations in Europe, companies that violate the data protection rules could face fines of as much as €100 million or 5% of their annual revenue.
  • Impact on society: 50% of people buying Apple products are new customers; many stating privacy policy as one critical reason for their choice. Unlike other companies Apple does not monetize the information users store on their Apple devices or on their cloud computing service iCloud.

Approach

  • Apple has a dedicated privacy website with advice on password strength, security questions and additional security measures when using Apple devices and digital products.
  • Apple also has clear and easy to navigate tools across all of its devices, to enable safe online behaviours and sharing of personal data.
  • The company will spend nearly $2 billion on building two new data centres in Europe; the move comes with a general trend for Europeans to be more concerned about data privacy, demanding stricter legislation.

Apple is one of more than 100 case studies identified as part of the World Economic Forum’s Digital Transformation of Industries initiative.  An overview of the DTI program can be found here.

1. Sources: Apple, Washington Post, WEF/Accenture Analysis

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