Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook has told the U.S. government in no uncertain terms that the public must have more control over the data collected on them throughout their lives.

Cook (pictured), who last year voiced his concerns about privacy issues after the Facebook data leak scandal, said in a Time magazine op-ed Wednesday that it’s high time consumers had the right to “delete their data on demand, freely, easily and online, once and for all.”

“Consumers shouldn’t have to tolerate another year of companies irresponsibly amassing huge user profiles, data breaches that seem out of control and the vanishing ability to control our own digital lives,” said Cook, who last year voiced his concerns about a “data industrial complex.”

The Apple boss has been outspoken about data privacy issues and has applauded the European Union’s data privacy laws. He said last year that he hoped the U.S. and the rest of the world would follow suit, saying we should all be unsettled by the “stockpiles of personal data serve only to enrich the companies that collect them.”

Facebook Inc. was lambasted by Cook in particular last year, something which was said to have infuriated Mark Zuckerberg. Incidentally, this week a Pew Research Center survey showed that most Americans aren’t even aware Facebook makes them targets for advertisers.

In the Time article, Cook said all is not lost but Congress needs to pass legislation that will empower consumers. He said data collection needs to be minimized first. After that, people should be told what’s being gathered and why. Once they know, said Cook, they should have the right to easily control that data or delete it. He also said that people should have “the right to data security.”

He didn’t stop there, saying companies secretly sold information to data brokers, stating that “shadow economy” was a violation of people’s rights and certainly something they hadn’t signed up for. “The trail disappears before you even know there is a trail,” he said. “Right now, all of these secondary markets for your information exist in a shadow economy that’s largely unchecked—out of sight of consumers, regulators and lawmakers.”

Cook called on the Federal Trade Commission to create a “data-broker clearinghouse” where consumers could track this collected data and if they so choose get rid of it.

At the end of the missive he waxed philosophical, saying, “Technology has the potential to keep changing the world for the better, but it will never achieve that potential without the full faith and confidence of the people who use it.”

Photo: iphonedigital/Flickr