With the release of Apple’s iOS 8, the company is introducing some significant privacy and sharing upgrades. Following the recent hack of celebrity photographs from iCloud accounts, Apple launched a campaign explaining the ways in which it handles personal data. CEO Tim Cook released a statement indicating that he wants Apple to be transparent about these issues. In iOS 8, the company released a feature called Continuity, enhanced user privacy, and family sharing.

“We don’t build a profile based on your email content or Web browsing habits to sell to advertisers,” Cook wrote. “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.”

Along with this, Apple encrypts all iMessages and texts between its users and therefore could not possibly comply with a wiretap order.

Apple also introduced Continuity, which is supported on iOS 8, allowing users to begin an email or other task using one device, and later continue it on another.

“‘We would never have gotten there in the old model,’ Cook says. These new products are reminders ‘of why we exist. The things we should be doing at Apple are things that others can’t,'” reports Businessweek.

In regards to the addition of Apple Pay, “Apple doesn’t have a stellar track record when it comes to making easy-to-use services. Products such as iCloud, iTunes, and Siri lack the intuitive polish of Apple’s devices, and customers aren’t likely to be as forgiving when the stakes are raised from organizing photos to ensuring the security of their financial transactions,” reports Businessweek.

“The lines between hardware, software, and services are blurred or are disappearing,” Cook continues. “The only way you can pull this off is when everyone is working together well. And not just working together well but almost blending together so that you can’t tell where people are working anymore, because they are so focused on a great experience that they are not taking functional views of things.”

Related:
Apple Puts Focus on Security, The Wall Street Journal, 9/17/14