Apple has launched a dedicated privacy website that aims to explain what kind of information the company collects, and why.

The update was announced by CEO Tim Cook in an open letter to customers, in which he promised to issue regular privacy updates and once again insisted that Apple has never worked with any government agency to install backdoors in any of its products. “We have also never allowed access to our servers. And we never will,” Cook said.

The CEO also claimed that features of iOS 8 make it impossible for the company to comply with government requests for user data.

Safe and sound
The letter from Cook could be seen as a response to allegations that vulnerabilities in Apple’s iCloud service helped hackers steal intimate photos of at least 100 female celebrities, which were later distributed online. It also comes several weeks before the launch of Apple Pay service in the US.

“Security and privacy are fundamental to the design of all our hardware, software, and services, including iCloud and new services like Apple Pay,” Cook said.

“And we continue to make improvements. Two-step verification, which we encourage all our customers to use, in addition to protecting your Apple ID account information, now also protects all of the data you store and keep up to date with iCloud.”

In his letter, Cook explained that Apple does not directly monetize any information it collects from users. The only exception to this rule is the iAd platform, and even that doesn’t get access to the data that powers services of its competitors including Google, for example users’ location and content of their messages.

Cook also suggested that the new iPhone and iPad models can safeguard their owners against intrusive surveillance operations of the UK and US intelligence agencies, revealed by Edward Snowden last year.

The updated privacy policy claims that in case of devices running the recently launched iOS 8, Apple simply can’t access user content protected with a passcode, making it “not technically feasible” to respond to government requests for user data, including messages and emails. However, content stored with iCloud can still be passed on to law enforcement agencies.