Tim Cook's stance on privacy could define his Apple legacy

[Commentary] It is Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook’s hard-line stance on privacy that could define his legacy at Apple and set the tone for the way big corporations deal with big government at a time when so much of our lives unfold on the devices we use every day.

How far Cook is willing to take the fight is being tested on a national level now. Challenging a court order pits the world's most formidable tech giant against its most powerful government and puts Cook in the hot seat as the voice of Silicon Valley on a long-contentious issue. "This is an American company fighting an order from an American court," said Chenxi Wang, chief strategy officer at Twistlock, a computer and network security firm. "This will absolutely have a ripple effect. Apple is now viewed as the flag bearer for protecting citizen data, and if they succeed, there will be a flood of other companies following suit." But Cook has chosen a difficult case on which to stake his position.