Bob Borchers (Apple): “We will never put compatibility before privacy”

Washington, 17 Mar Apple will never put compatibility between devices from different manufacturers before the protection of privacy and personal data, the firm's vice president for product marketing, Bob Borchers, said in an interview with Efe. Known for the effort it has historically put into isolating its devices in the so-called 'Apple ecosystem', the iPhone company has been opening up a little more in recent years to make its products compatible with those of the competition, but the red line is respect for privacy. “What is absolutely key and non-negotiable for us is to maintain the same level of privacy and security that we know our customers need and expect from our products,” Borchers said in his conversation with Efe. The manager gave as an example the development of the standard for home voice assistants called 'Matter', in which Apple itself and competing companies such as Amazon, Google and Samsung, as well as Ikea, Comcast, Huawei and others participate. The idea behind this standard language — which is expected to hit the market sometime in 2022 — is to make compatible the various devices and protocols in an industry currently as atomized as that of home voice assistants, so that, for example, Siri can communicate with Alexa or Google Assistant. According to Borchers, Apple's involvement in this project has always sought a balance between encouraging interoperability to facilitate day-to-day use and purchasing decisions for users on the one hand, and ensuring that the new standard will not lower Apple's strict privacy criteria against other competitors that may be more. lax. “We know, and they remind us all the time, that in today's world, one of the things that most concern people is the privacy and security of their information, and that is something that has always been a brand of the house for us. We believe that the right to privacy is a fundamental human right,” said the Apple executive. In this regard, he also said that when a customer purchases an Apple product, be it an iPhone, an iPad, a Mac or a smart home device such as HomePod, his expectation is that it is respectful of their privacy, and that therefore any advance in interoperability cannot betray that trust. Within the company's own devices, Borchers celebrated that integration is increasing, and gave as an example the live text function, which allows you to digitize physical text using the iPhone camera and share it directly on a Mac. CHIEF arc/er/lll