Consumers should not be concerned about their data if they choose to use Apple’s new way of storing medical records in their devices, former Apple CEO John Sculley told CNBC on Wednesday.

Earlier that morning, Apple announced it was testing a new product that would let people view their medical records via mobile devices, such as an iPhone or Apple Watch. Some critics argue that Apple may already have too much access to individuals’ information and wonder what tech giants are doing with customers’ data.

“I think Apple is different,” said Sculley, who is now chairman and chief marketing officer at health-care company RxAdvance.

Sculley said Apple is unlike other tech companies in that it does not seek to make money off information collected from consumers such as search behavior and shopping habits. Instead, he said, Apple focuses on what it is good at: entertainment experience.

“Apple has a booming service business,” he said on “Squawk Alley.” “But it isn’t because they’re doing the same things that Amazon and Google and Facebook are doing. … They’re not actually doing things where they can monetize the data for themselves.”

Privacy concerns in Silicon Valley have led to a distrust among some consumers. But regulating the tech world would prevent companies from advancing and would be a greater disservice to society in the long run, Sculley said.

“We’ve seen this movie before [with] the biggest players in an industry,” he said. “It happened with Microsoft decades ago, … people saying, ‘Break them up. Highly regulate them.’ But the reality is, I think these companies are much bigger contributors to the economy and to society.”

With Facebook’s recent announcement that it is changing its News Feed, Sculley said he thinks the major tech companies will make voluntary adjustments to their business models that will protect consumer privacy without the need for government involvement.

Source: Tech CNBC
Your health data is safer in Apple's hands than with other tech giants, says former Apple CEO