Apple-Facebook belligerent over iOS privacy update likely in spring

In his recent speech, he retorted Facebook after Mark Zuckerberg accused Apple of misleading users. Cook criticised the companies that chase engagement at all costs and sell user data to promoters for the monetary gains. While he did not mention Facebook by name, it appeared fairly clear he was mentioning the social media giant.

Apple and Facebook are belligerent over an iOS privacy update expected in the spring. Apple and Facebook have been at loggerheads since August, when Apple announced plans to begin pushing iPhone applications to ask users for agreement before tracking them for advertising purposes.

The implementation of the policy was delayed after Facebook protested, saying the update would destroy its and other developers' ad revenue. Further to this, Apple is determinant to roll out the feature in early spring.

"Technology does not need vast troves of personal data, stitched together across dozens of websites and apps, in order to succeed," he said in a speech to the European Computers, Privacy and Data Protection Conference. "Advertising existed and thrived for decades without it. And we're here today because the path of least resistance is rarely the path of wisdom."

"At a moment of rampant disinformation and conspiracy theories juiced by algorithms, we can no longer turn a blind eye to a theory of technology that says all engagement is good engagement — the longer the better — and all with the goal of collecting as much data as possible," Cook said.

"It is long past time to stop pretending that this approach doesn't come with a cost — of polarization, of lost trust, and, yes, of violence. A social dilemma cannot be allowed to become a social catastrophe," he added.

"If a business is built on misleading users, on data exploitation, on choices that are no choices at all, then it does not deserve our praise," he said. "It deserves reform."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg attacked Apple during a Facebook earnings call, condemning the iPhone maker of "misleading" promises about its privacy practices.