Yep. Apple has handed the Chinese government the keys to its cloud data as a condition of doing business in China. Amazon and other silicon giants are doing the same. The Chinese market is the big prize, and these corporations have allegiance only to money. The Chinese use this data about an individual's online activities to determine a social score for the person.
Your privileges in China (and soon here as well if the technocracy has its way) hinge on your social score, such as the privilege of traveling. If you score low enough, you lose important privileges such as the privilege of retaining valuable internal organs which can be sold for big bucks.
In China today, as well as the near-future America envisioned by Apple and most of Silicon Valley, you are a resource which will be exploited to the fullest one way or another.
Sigh. No, Apple has not handed over the keys to the iCloud data to the Chinese Government. Following the LAWS in China, Apple is required to have the data for Chinese iCloud customers within China's borders. As part of that law, the encryption keys ALSO have to be stored somewhere within the physical borders of China. That does not mean in the possession of the Chinese Government. Apple has those encryption keys in their Peking Apple China Corporate office, where, if necessary the Chinese Court system can require Apple to unlock various court ordered accounts.
Yes, you are correct, Amazon and the other silicon giants are doing the same because to do business within the borders of China, they have to comply with the laws of China, just as they have to comply with the laws of the United States to do business here.
The social score in China is determined by their participation on SOCIAL MEDIA, not by their participation on the Apple iCloud which is not a social media platform. The Chinese have equivalents to Facebook and Twitter and YouTube. That is what their social scores are being based on. And no, the Chinese do not lose their organs if their score goes too low. That's an urban legend. They do lose travel passports and jobs are put in jeopardy.
In China today, as well as the near-future America envisioned by Apple and most of Silicon Valley, you are a resource which will be exploited to the fullest one way or another.
Apple is not interested in selling its customers, contrary to your statement above. They do want to "exploit" them as customers. . . but not as products, the way Facebook and Google intend. Apple has been vehement about customer's privacy, sometimes to the point of fighting the government about it.