Posted on 07/18/2018 8:21:12 PM PDT by Enlightened1
A state-owned telecommunications company in China now stores the iCloud data for Apple’s China-based users. This is really bad news for dissidents and critics of the government.
Fast forward to today: China Telecom, a government owned telco, is taking over the iCloud data from Guizhou-Cloud Big Data. This essentially means that a state-owned firm now has access to all the iCloud data China-based users store, such as photos, notes, emails, and text messages.
Chinese state-run media is heralding the move as a win for consumers, but Chinese citizens have been extremely condemnatory of the decision. On Weibo, China’s Twitter clone, the conversation about the iCloud data has mostly centered around concern over censorship and users’ privacy.
Previously, in order to keep doing business in China, Apple had to store it’s iCloud data for Chinese users on servers within the country. Apple made the move and signed a deal with Guizhou-Cloud Big Data in February in order to comply with Chinese law that made such a decision a requirement. That month, Apple issued a statement:
"China recently enacted laws requiring that cloud services offered to their citizens be operated by Chinese companies and that Chinese customers' data be stored in the country. While we advocated against iCloud being subject to these laws, we were ultimately unsuccessful. Our choice was to offer iCloud under the new laws or discontinue offering the service. We elected to continue offering iCloud as we felt that discontinuing the service would result in a bad user experience and less data security and privacy for our Chinese customers."
Furthermore, Apple tried to calm fears by pointing out that while the data is stored with a China-based company, the company still controlled the encryption keys to each account. They reiterated that no special deal was made
(Excerpt) Read more at mashable.com ...
I turned off the Cloud as soon as I realized it existed.
Ditto that.
Chicoms are vicious to their citizens freedom, but:
Which government has access to all U.S. data transmitted over the internet?
</rhetorical>
*PING*
China and the US deep state think in the same way.
Regret follows my every use of iCloud. It is all or nothing and there is no half way using iCloud. It is either 100% iCloud or 0% iCloud. I remember an interview with Steve Jobs about iCloud and he expressed his surprise at how difficult it was to make. Thankfully, developers have made alternatives to iTunes, iCloud, and iPhoto.
Old news. Already posted. No reason to rehash what is required by Chinese law for Chinese citizens. If Apple does not comply, they cannot do business in China. It applies to ALL businesses for all CHINESE customers.
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