Tim Cook: 'We’re not reading your email or iMessages'

Tim Cook has denied Apple reads its customers' private messages, stating "people have a right to privacy".

The chief executive also denied the NSA was able to access the Californian company's servers, saying: "We would never allow that to happen, they would have to cart us out in a box before we did that.

"We’re not reading your email, we’re not reading your iMessage. If the government laid a subpoena on us to get your iMessages, we can’t provide it. It’s encrypted and we don’t have the key. The door is closed."

In a candid interview with American talk show host Charlie Rose, Cook criticised companies that trade off their customers' personal information, and distanced Apple from such practices.

Our business is not based on having information about you. You're not our product," he said.

"If they're making money mainly by collecting gobs of personal data, I think you have a right to be worried. And you should really understand what's happening to that data, and the companies, I think, should be very transparent about it.

"From our point of view, you can see what we're doing on the credit card thing. We don't want it. We're not in that business. I'm offended by lots of it, and so I think people have a right to privacy."

Apple Pay, the company's new contactless payment and mobile wallet service, was revealed last week by Cook at the launch of the iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6 and Apple Watch in California.

The technology will use the new iPhones' Near Field Communications (NFC) antenna and TouchID fingerprint reader to make payments by resting a registered finger on the phone's home button and holding it near a contactless reader. US phone owners will be able to use Apple Pay from October, while a date for the UK and the rest of Europe is yet to be announced.

PayPal ran an advert appearing to take a sideswipe at Apple in the New York Times on Monday, stating: 'We the people want our money safer than our selfies.'

The advert seems to be a thinly-veiled reference to the hacking of several high profile female Hollywood stars and models' cloud accounts - allegedly including Apple's iCloud - resulting in hundreds of nude photos being posted online.

The company issued a statement earlier this month denying the iCloud was breached during the attack.

"After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet," the statement read.

"None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple’s systems including iCloud or Find my iPhone. We are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved."