In an open letter to customers, written in September, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook attacked advertising-supported businesses like Google and Facebook (without naming them), saying Apple doesn’t build profiles of its users from their e-mail content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers.

“Our business model is very straightforward: we sell great products,” Cook wrote. “We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers. We don’t ‘monetise’ the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don’t read your email or your messages to get information to market to you.”

He added that Apple’s iAd system also “sticks to the same privacy policy that applies to every other Apple product. It doesn’t get data from Health and HomeKit, Maps, Siri, iMessage, your call history, or any iCloud service like Contacts or Mail, and you can always just opt out altogether.”

Mark Zuckerberg has responded to Cook’s attack in Time magazine – and not too kindly!

“A frustration I have is that a lot of people increasingly seem to equate an advertising business model with somehow being out of alignment with your customers … I think it’s the most ridiculous concept. What, you think because you’re paying Apple that you’re somehow in alignment with them? If you were in alignment with them, then they’d make their products a lot cheaper!”

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