Craig Federighi: Apple Will Continue to 'Protect Our Customers' Amid 'Innovation' in Privacy Exploitation

Following WWDC, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi said that Apple will continue to protect its customers amid "innovation" in the world of privacy exploitation and that Apple believes it "can largely stay ahead" of the curve to protect users.

craig wwdc 2021 privacy
In an exclusive interview with Fast Company, Federighi talked about new announcements that Apple made during WWDC on Monday, including Private Relay for iCloud+. Many are attributing the feature to a VPN, but Federighi notes that VPNs require users to trust the VPN provider with their data, whereas Private Relay doesn't include the need for a third party to encrypt and redirect the internet traffic.

Why did Apple develop this technology rather than build a more conventional VPN into its operating systems? "Core to the nature of the internet is that the IP address is traditionally exposed between the requester and the host – and that has some privacy knock on effects that aren't always understandable to users and certainly aren't always desirable to users. And so that's a problem we wanted to solve," says Federighi. He notes an unprotected IP has led to vectors for abuse by bad actors. "VPNs are a technology that has sought to provide some of those protections, but they do involve putting a lot of trust in a single centralized entity: the VPN provider. And that's a lot of responsibility for that intermediary, and involves the user making a really difficult trust decision about exposing all of that information to a single entity."

Federighi further said that Apple wanted to remove the need for users to trust it, or another company, allowing them to enjoy the end-user experience without the privacy trade-off.

"We hope users believe in Apple as a trustworthy intermediary, but we didn't even want you to have to trust us [because] we don't have this ability to simultaneously source your IP and the destination where you're going to–and that's unlike VPNs. And so we wanted to provide many of the benefits that people are seeking when in the past they've decided to use a VPN, but not force that difficult and conceivably perilous privacy trade-off in terms of trusting it a single intermediary."

Speaking generally about Apple’s privacy values, and some resistance to them from companies like Facebook, Federighi said that Apple believes it can continue to lead the industry, and especially as the incentives for finding privacy "exploitations" are high.

"I think the analogy with security is apt," Federighi says of the feline-and-rodent comparison. "The incentives for 'innovation' in the exploitation world are high, and so there is a lot of advancement in the art of tracking; a lot of advancement in the arts of security exploits. And so, in both areas, we think there's going to continue to be a cat and mouse game. We think we bring a lot of tools to that fight, and we can largely stay ahead of it and protect our customers. But it’s something we recognize as a battle we will be fighting for years to come."

The full interview which includes Federighi talking about how governments and the industry should treat privacy can be read on Fast Comapny.

Popular Stories

iOS 18

Here Are Apple's Full iOS 18.5 Release Notes

Tuesday May 6, 2025 2:17 pm PDT by
Apple today seeded the release candidate version of iOS 18.5 to developers and public beta testers, giving us a look at the final version of the update that will be provided to the public next week. With the release candidate, Apple provided release notes, so we have a more complete look at the new features that are included in the update, including those that weren't found during the beta...
siri glow

iPhone Users Now Able to Submit Claims in $95 Million Siri Spying Lawsuit

Wednesday May 7, 2025 11:40 am PDT by
If you owned a Siri-compatible device and had an accidental Siri activation between September 17, 2014 and December 31, 2024, you could be eligible for a payment from Apple as part of a class action lawsuit settlement. Apple in January agreed to pay $95 million to settle a class action lawsuit involving Siri spying accusations, and a website to distribute the funds has now been set up and...
iOS 18

Apple Says iOS 18.5 Coming Soon, Here is What's New

Monday May 5, 2025 8:19 am PDT by
In its press release for the new Pride Band today, Apple said that iOS 18.5 is "upcoming," following more than a month of beta testing. We expect the iOS 18.5 Release Candidate to be released this week, and this should be the final beta version, barring any last-minute bugs or changes. The software update should then be released to the general public next week. iOS 18.5 is a relatively...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17: What's New With the Cameras

Friday May 2, 2025 3:52 pm PDT by
We've still got months to go before the new iPhone 17 models come out, but a combination of dummy models and leaks have given us some insight into what we can expect in terms of camera changes. Apple is adding new camera features, and changing the design of the camera bump for some models. You might be skeptical of dummy models, but over the years, they've proven to be a highly accurate...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Foldable iPhone Said to Have Two Key Advantages

Monday May 5, 2025 6:41 am PDT by
Apple plans to release its first foldable iPhone next year, according to several reporters and analysts who cover the company. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the foldable iPhone will offer two key advantages over other foldable smartphones. First, he said the foldable iPhone will have a "nearly invisible" crease when unfolded. This means the device's...
AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Tuesday April 29, 2025 1:30 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
Nineth iOS 19 Feature

iOS 19 Beta is a Month Away With These New Features for Your iPhone

Thursday May 8, 2025 7:37 am PDT by
The first iOS 19 beta is just one month away, and there are already many new features and changes that are expected with it. Apple should seed the first iOS 19 beta to developers immediately following the WWDC 2025 keynote, which is scheduled for Monday, June 9. Following beta testing, the update should be released to the general public in September. Below, we recap the key iOS 19 rumors...

Top Rated Comments

Cubsfan Avatar
51 months ago

Except our customers in China, where we're forced by the government to hand over everything, so we can protect our marketshare there. Then we don't believe in privacy.
What would your proposed alternative be?

Offer this in china and get banned, so everyone in china is required to use phones that support zero privacy?

Pull out of China? What problem does that solve for Chinese citizens?

Edit: Everyone wants to say that Apple sucks for not doing stuff like this in China, but is unable to propose a solution that actually improves the lives of Chinese citizens.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Wildkraut Avatar
51 months ago
Craig Federighi: Apple Will Continue to 'Protect Our Customers' Amid 'Innovation' in Privacy Exploitation

Nice, We are looking forward to a fully End2End Encrypted iCloud incl. iCloud Backups. ?
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JosephAW Avatar
51 months ago

Except our customers in China, where we're forced by the government to hand over everything, so we can protect our marketshare there. Then we don't believe in privacy.
There’s an 800 pound gorilla in the room but nobody wants to acknowledge it at Apple. :rolleyes:
Bottom line, they are in the business to make money and will comply with all foreign government regulations.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
NT1440 Avatar
51 months ago

After yesterday's WWDC they do seem committed to protecting customers from innovation of any kind ?
Live text seems like it’s going to be incredibly useful, along with several other introduced features. And that doesn’t even touch Assistive Touch which is *massively* innovative and opens the door to technology for millions who couldn’t use it before ?‍♂️

But innovation simply means “things I want” these days right?
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
transpo1 Avatar
51 months ago
Except our customers in China, where we're forced by the government to hand over everything, so we can protect our marketshare there. Then we don't believe in privacy.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
matrix07 Avatar
51 months ago

Except our customers in China, where we're forced by the government to hand over everything, so we can protect our marketshare there. Then we don't believe in privacy.
The world is not black and white. He didn’t say he wouldn’t respect local law. In fact he has no choice at all.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)