Apple returns to CES in 2020 with exec scheduled to speak at privacy roundtable

Jane Horvath, Apple's senior director of global privacy, is slated to take part in a privacy-focused roundtable at CES in January, marking the company's first official appearance at the trade show in nearly 30 years.

Horvath will join Facebook VP of Public Policy and Chief Privacy Offer for Policy Erin Egan, Procter & Gamble Company Global Privacy Officer Susan Shook and Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter in an hour-long discussion moderated by Rajeev Chand, Partner and Head of Research at Wing Venture Capital.

The executives are expected to tackle a range of privacy-related topics including building privacy at scale, government regulation and consumer impact of privacy programs, according to an outline of the event posted to the official CES website.

Horvath has worked in her role as Apple's privacy czar since September 2011 but entered the public eye when she attended a so-called "spy summit" to discuss data privacy and mass surveillance issues in 2015. It was around that time that Apple began to ratchet up its rhetoric on privacy in consumer tech. Prior to Apple, Horvath acted as Google's Global Privacy Counsel.

Bloomberg reported on Horvath's planned appearance earlier today.

An Apple executive last took the stage at CES in 1992, when then-CEO John Sculley unveiled the Newton. At the time, the trade show was still being held at its original Chicago venues.

The tech giant has since refrained from participating in CES, at least in an official capacity. Recent years have seen "undercover" employees prowling the grounds in search of new technology and staking out the competition. Previously electing to take part in Apple-friendly gatherings like the Macworld Conference & Expo, the company over the past ten years has relied on its own launch events and annual developers conference to expose consumers to new products and services.

In early 2019, however, Apple did make an appearance of sorts at CES in Las Vegas, plastering a massive billboard on the side of SpringHill Suites by Marriott hotel that overlooks the Las Vegas Convention Center. That ad's message: privacy.

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7 Comments

melgross 33598 comments · 20 Years

About 4 years ago

This is good.i believe Apple should attend conferences and trade shows. They used to. Steve Jobs once said, in a response to the person running CES quite a while ago, when he said that Apple should attend CES, that Apple would, if it weren’t the same time as Macworld. Macworld ended when Apple stopped attending, but they never went to CES. Apple used to attend the NAB conference and trade show. I think they should do that again.

JWSC 1203 comments · 7 Years

I’m shocked!!! Simply shocked!!! How could Apple do such a thing ... 😉

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It’s good that Apple can use CES as a place to meet with their “competimates” and coordinate on industry practices and standards. But it’s unlikely Apple would ever use CES to announce any new products, which would dilute the impact of any product announcement.

wizard69 13358 comments · 21 Years

melgross said:

This is good.i believe Apple should attend conferences and trade shows. They used to. Steve Jobs once said, in a response to the person running CES quite a while ago, when he said that Apple should attend CES, that Apple would, if it weren’t the same time as Macworld. Macworld ended when Apple stopped attending, but they never went to CES. Apple used to attend the NAB conference and trade show. I think they should do that again.

In a general sense the negativity with respect to trade shows and similar events seems to the result of community the no in the executive quarters of many companies. For whatever reason there was a huge widespread attack on the “events” business and even professional organizations that started about 2 decades ago. Companies didn’t want to allot time nor money to even senior level individuals to attend or be involved in such events.

It is kinda funny and sad at the same time. I remember in my youth having the company president hand out tickets to a local event and expecting you to be there. Now that I’m an old fart I try to get the current company to send the new recruits to the same event and you hear every excuse you could imagine. Then you have the same individuals complaining that they can’t find and keep motivated and deeply interested employees.

In any event I don’t think these companies understand that such shows are good for everyone involved be the person an executive making a big presence at the show or the wet behind the ears kid fresh out of school.

JWSC said:

I’m shocked!!! Simply shocked!!! How could Apple do such a thing ... 😉

***

It’s good that Apple can use CES as a place to meet with their “competimates” and coordinate on industry practices and standards. But it’s unlikely Apple would ever use CES to announce any new products, which would dilute the impact of any product announcement.

That depends upon the product. Shows like CES though have benefits beyond being a place to offer up something new. For one such shows build excitement in both your customer base and in the employees that attend. Even those employees that don’t attend get something out of a massive public display of their work. Let’s face it CES beats a web based debut of a new product by a long shot.
The second aspect is the stupidity of constantly marketing to the captured customer base and ignoring everyone that isn’t an Apple customer. The beauty of CES is the very fact that you don’t have the converted pre committed customer base. Instead you have the rest of the world to try to capture.

Anilu_777 576 comments · 8 Years

I agree with the above poster that Apple should return to CES, not to launch its flagship iPhone but perhaps to launch a new iPad or MacBook or accessory such as AirPods or the Apple Watch. It brings Apple visibility with all the rest of them at the same place.