Tim Cook stands up for Google as default search engine

Tim Cook. CC0 1.0, Wikimedia Commons.

In an interview with Axios on HBO, Tim Cook defended Apple’s decision to use Google as the default search engine. This decision doesn’t jibe with the company’s strong rhetoric on the protection of personal data and private life, considering that Google’s business model is to make money using users’ data to target ads. “I think their search engine is the best. Look at what we’ve done with the controls we’ve built in. We have private web browsing. We have an intelligent tracker prevention. What we’ve tried to do is come up with ways to help our users through the course of their day. It’s not a perfect thing. I’d be the very first person to say that. But it goes a long way to helping.” Apple brings in several billion dollars annually from its Google licensing agreements (the exact number is undisclosed, though Goldman Sachs estimates it at over 9 billion, which is huge) to integrate Google Search in iOS and macOS. Furthermore, Cook estimates that federal privacy regulations are inevitable, given that the self-regulating approach has failed.

⇨ Ars Technica, “Tim Cook defends using Google as primary search engine on Apple devices.”