A billboard advertising Apple's iPhone security is displayed during CES 2019 in Las Vegas.
Apple is putting in a rare official appearance at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, using the giant trade show to talk about consumer privacy.
The company’s senior director of privacy, Jane Horvath, will speak at a chief privacy officer roundtable panel on January 7, along with Facebook’s chief privacy officer, Erin Egan.
That could make for a combustible exchange, given past privacy clashes between Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.
Apple hasn’t appeared on a stage at CES since 1992, when Chief Executive Officer John Sculley used the forum to announce that the company would begin selling a low-cost version of the Mac in retail stores.
In more recent years, the tech colossus hasn’t needed to trek to Las Vegas to capture the attention of the world’s press. Its influence has been palpable, both in private discussions as well as in booths displaying peripheral devices.
Apple made news last year when it purchased a giant billboard that took a not-so-subtle jab at the privacy policies of its Silicon Valley rivals.
“What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone,” read the massive letters, which played off the familiar Sin City slogan, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”
This year’s debate about privacy will play out on the CES stage, not on the streets.
