Apple is moving forward several privacy upgrades Wednesday, including launching a portal that allows customers to search and see what kind of data the company has kept on them.
The privacy portal was already tested in the European Union in May, coinciding with the EU's launch of restrictive privacy legislation called the General Data Protection Legislation (GDPR). The information collected may include data such as calendar entries, photos, reminders, documents, website bookmarks, App Store purchases or support history of repairs to your devices, among other items.
The search function, which provides customers a report on their tracked data, fits into a broader narrative as Apple seeks to differentiate itself as a company that makes its money from selling hardware, rather than targeted ads based on the data of its customers.
In March, CEO Tim Cook said in an interview: "The truth is, we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer — if our customer was our product. We've elected not to do that."
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg followed up those comments with his own, saying Cook was "extremely glib" and argued that Facebook's business model is "the only rational model that can support building this service to reach people."
