All the times Apple's CEO has sworn to defend your iPhone privacy from the U.S. government

Apple CEOs really want to defend your privacy --  whether you've asked them to be your protectors or not. 

On Wednesday, CEO Tim Cook published a powerful, striking open letter to customers on Apple's website explaining why the technology giant had refused a federal court order to help the FBI by building new software to unlock data on the iPhone 5c belonging to one of the attackers behind last year's mass shooting in San Bernardino. 

It might sound like a no-brainer: the two shooters inflicted tremendous harm on the community and claimed a connection to ISIS. Any data that could shed light on the incident would surely be valuable.

But, according to Cook, giving the FBI backdoor software to the iPhone would also set a "dangerous" precedent for violations of consumer privacy. 

"The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor," Cook wrote. "And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control."

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If this all sounds strangely familiar, it's because Cook has spoken loudly and often to sound the alarm bells over privacy and security throughout much of his tenure as Apple's CEO -- even before that tragic day in San Bernardino.

For Apple, playing up its defense of user privacy has long proven to be a useful tool to differentiate itself from Internet companies like Facebook and Google, which depend on some amount of data collection in order to build out and make money from their services.

Apple and its CEO have pushed that narrative even more in the years since NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked documents claiming Apple, Google, Facebook and others gave access to sensitive user information to the security agency. That news threatened to upend consumer confidence in buying and using iPhones, Apple's primary revenue stream.

Steve Jobs and privacy

Tim Cook has quickly established himself as a moral leader in Silicon Valley, speaking up on numerous issues like LGBT rights and philanthropy that his predecessor would never have touched.

But this issue isn't one of those.

Steve Jobs, Apple's late cofounder and CEO, did take a strong stance on privacy, repeatedly stressing that the company doesn't collection location information and deliberately restricts questionable third-party applications from launching on the App Store in part because they could collect important user data.

"We've always had a very different view of privacy than some of our colleagues in the Valley," Jobs said in a 2010 interview. "We take privacy extremely seriously." 

Then, as now, the remarks often seem directed squarely at rival Google.

The Cook years

During his first two years in charge of Apple, you were more likely to hear Cook talk about his decision to live a very private life than discuss the issue of user privacy.

That changed significantly after the damaging Snowden documents started to trickle out in June, 2013.

“Much of what has been said isn't true,” Cook told ABC in an interview at the beginning of 2014. 

“There is no back door. The government doesn't have access to our servers. They would have to cart us out in a box for that, and that just will not happen. We feel that strongly about it.”

Cook didn't stop there. Every few months after that, the Apple CEO hammered the privacy issue in speeches, interviews and open letters on Apple's website. 

In September, 2014 Cook echoed his predecessor's sentiment on privacy in an interview with Charlie Rose, shifting away from the NSA issue and back to a familiar debate in which Apple has the high ground over its competitors.

"Our business is not based on having information about you. You're not our product," Cook said at the time.

"I think everyone has to ask how do companies make their money. Follow the money. And if they are making money mainly by collecting gobs of personal data, I think you have a right to be worried... We're not in that business. I'm offended by lots of it."

Days later, Cook repeated that point in his first open letter on the issue to Apple customers:

"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 wrote. "We know that your trust doesn’t come easy. That’s why we have and always will work as hard as we can to earn and keep it."

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Then came the speeches.

In February, 2015 Cook spoke at President Obama's cybersecurity summit to remind us that Apple and Cook "believe deeply that everyone has a right to privacy and security."

Four months later, he repeated that forceful point in another speech at the EPIC Champions of Freedom Award dinner. 

"Let me be crystal clear -- weakening encryption, or taking it away, harms good people that are using it for the right reasons," he said at the event. "And ultimately, I believe it has a chilling effect on our First Amendment rights and undermines our country's founding principles."

All of that rhetoric has flummoxed U.S. officials, ignited Republican presidential candidates like Donald Trump and won praise from privacy advocates like Edward Snowden who said candidly last year that it's the right thing for customers even if it comes from capitalist considerations.

“He’s obviously got a commercial incentive to differentiate himself from competitors like Google," Snowden said at the time. "But if he does that, if he directs Apple’s business model to be different, to say 'we’re not in the business of collecting and selling information. We’re in the business of creating and selling devices that are superior,' then that’s a good thing for privacy. That’s a good thing for customers."

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