On the face of it, this is just another corporate “aren’t we so great” feel-good video, the kind that we have every right to look at cynically.

However, and at the significant risk of being judged a Tim Cook fanboi, I actually think something has changed under his leadership. Even if it is just that we are allowed to see more of this side of Apple now, Tim’s tenure so far seems to be bringing about a much stronger focus on values than ever before.

We have their ‘Intention’ video, Tim’s public musings at the Fuqua School of Business, and perhaps more importantly, actions like their Supplier Responsibility work and bringing the manufacturing of the new Mac Pro to the USA.

Perhaps what is most exciting about this new, very public, focus on these issues is the idea that ethics can become a point of competition.

Not every customer is going to care about this stuff, but most people will want to feel like they’re doing the right thing. The pressure that companies like Apple can put on their competitors might be one of the most effective tools for actually making a difference to a whole industry’s behaviour.

I hope we see that.

Much is said about Google’s “don’t be evil” corporate motto. That is not what this post is about.

This is about corporate values — and a (rather smaller) company I have found myself appreciating because of their words and actions on the subject. This stuff can be easily overlooked when the market demands a rush to the lowest price, but to consumers like myself, it is possibly the most important thing.

This isn’t some murky sponsored post (although I do have an affiliate link at the bottom) — this is all genuine and from the heart.

Cloak

I found out about Cloak through their co-branding with 1Password, my password manager of choice. They are a VPN service designed to give you a way to encrypt your traffic when you are connected to untrusted networks. Their service is technically brilliant, but what is more important than that is the honesty, openness and realism they have shown so far in their communications.

At first I felt a little apprehensive about their corporate values and how well they were upheld in practice. Their privacy policy was scant in detail — using claims along the lines of “we don’t store any of your data”, but with an exception of data that they’d need “to make sure you’re not sending out spam”.

Well, what does that mean?

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