As Apple prepares to step into new territory like mobile payments and health tracking, the company is getting more transparent about its data collection and privacy policies.
Just a day before the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus officially hit store shelves, Apple on Thursday published a new section on its website explaining how it handles your personal information, what it collects, and why.
"We don't build a profile based on your email content or Web browsing habits to sell to advertisers," CEO Tim Cook wrote in a note on the site. "We don't 'monetize' 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. Our software and services are designed to make our devices better. Plain and simple."
"Security and privacy are fundamental to the design of all our hardware, software, and services, including iCloud and new services like Apple Pay," Cook said. "We believe in telling you up front exactly what's going to happen to your personal information and asking for your permission before you share it with us."
Cook also addressed questions about Apple's involvement with the NSA. "I want to be absolutely clear that we have never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products or services," Cook said. "We have also never allowed access to our servers. And we never will."
Apple promised to provide updates at least once a year, as well as whenever it makes significant changes to its policies.
The move comes after Apple this week extended two-factor authentication to iCloud. That came after a celebrity photo scandal, in which nude images of Hollywood stars pulled from their iCloud accounts were posted to the Internet, though Apple was reportedly working on the two-factor update prior to the leak.
The company also this week received a letter from Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen asking for a meeting to discuss concerns over how the new Apple Watch collects information and what kind of data it stores.