Huawei Founder: We Admire Apple’s Stance On Data Privacy

Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, has said that his company remains committed to the highest standards of data security and privacy protection, in a rare interview with the press.

Zhengfei also confirmed that he is a big admirer of US tech firm Apple and said that his company could learn much from their US counterpart’s experiences with securing their customer’s data.

“Customer-centricity has been at the very core of Huawei’s business operations since our founding. We will never do anything to harm the interests of our customers. Apple is an example we look up to in terms of privacy protection. We will learn from Apple. We would rather shut Huawei down than do anything that would damage the interests of our customers in order to seek our own gains,” he said.

Zhengfei alluded to Apple’s recent conduct when it was required to hand over customer data to the US government and flatly refused, resulting in a protracted legal battle between Apple and the US government. Huawei’s founding father was then pressed on how Huawei would respond were it to find itself in a similar situation.

“We don’t have any channels for communicating with the US government, and, honestly, we don’t know much about each other. Regarding what would happen if the implied cyber-security case occurred, I believe I have made myself very clear: We will never harm the interests of our customers,” he said.―Total Telecom