After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul

by Tripp Mickle

Cook’s new warmness toward the administration was a consequence of emerging issues in China. The country had recently passed a cybersecurity law requiring that all Chinese phone customers’ data be stored on the mainland. It had forced Apple to open negotiations with a state-owned company in Guizhou that would build and operate an Apple data center. The plan had frustrated some members of Apple’s privacy and security team. They couldn’t reconcile Apple’s public refusal to help the FBI in the San Bernardino case with its quiet compliance in China. Instead of his high-minded promise to protect customers’ privacy, Cook had capitulated to the demands of a government known for surveilling its citizens, only to later ask for help from the very U.S. government he had once defied. The practical Cook seemed to lose his moral compass when faced with pressures in the market he had built.