Reporters Without Borders urges journalists to move or close Chinese iCloud accounts
Watchdog organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is recommending that journalists operating out of China either close or migrate their iCloud accounts by the end of the month, as Apple is on the verge of transferring local control to a company tied to the Chinese government.
Apple will formally hand the reins of its Chinese iCloud servers over to Guizhou-Cloud Big Data on Feb. 28, RSF said, quoted by the Hong Kong Free Press. That will put the personal data of both journalists and sources within reach of the Chinese government, which is known to suppress political dissent and other media content it considers a threat.
The local iCloud user agreement states that both Apple and GCBD can access user data, RSF noted.
"Apple promises that it will never give governments a backdoor to content, but there is no way of being sure about this," wrote Cedric Alviani, the head of RSF for East Asia. "Knowing the Chinese government's determination and the extent of the means of pressure at its disposal, it will end up getting its way sooner or later, if it hasn't already."
Apple has sometimes been criticized for its willingness to bend or break its standards in order to do business in China -- this includes remarks by Republican and Democrat politicians. In regions like the U.S. and Europe the company is normally a staunch advocate of free speech, privacy, and other human rights, but in China it complies with censorship requests, for instance by pulling controversial apps from the App Store.
A second Chinese data center is said to be in the works for Ulanqab City, though it will only open in 2020.
Apple will formally hand the reins of its Chinese iCloud servers over to Guizhou-Cloud Big Data on Feb. 28, RSF said, quoted by the Hong Kong Free Press. That will put the personal data of both journalists and sources within reach of the Chinese government, which is known to suppress political dissent and other media content it considers a threat.
The local iCloud user agreement states that both Apple and GCBD can access user data, RSF noted.
"Apple promises that it will never give governments a backdoor to content, but there is no way of being sure about this," wrote Cedric Alviani, the head of RSF for East Asia. "Knowing the Chinese government's determination and the extent of the means of pressure at its disposal, it will end up getting its way sooner or later, if it hasn't already."
Apple has sometimes been criticized for its willingness to bend or break its standards in order to do business in China -- this includes remarks by Republican and Democrat politicians. In regions like the U.S. and Europe the company is normally a staunch advocate of free speech, privacy, and other human rights, but in China it complies with censorship requests, for instance by pulling controversial apps from the App Store.
A second Chinese data center is said to be in the works for Ulanqab City, though it will only open in 2020.
Comments
Never use Google Cloud either.
Are they actually that stupid?
Does Google even allow to do that?
:-)
Still I’d still be very wary of organising group protests through iCloud – or any other service based in China.
And didn’t they recently grab a number of book sellers travelling through Hong Kong?
FWIW there is not the same concern with Google Cloud as they maintain no servers directly accessible to the Chinese government, Google having made the choice several years ago to leave rather than comply with government open-access demands. That might not make them "not evil" in some eyes but it is what it is. Companies can have principals and stick to them even if it costs them financially.
Anyway mixing Google into the Chinese conversation and in particular this thread is an effort from you at misdirection. Google has no comparable problem there which is why they weren't mentioned in the story.
Critics will “voice concerns” whatever they do, and critics don’t pay the bills.
So, while the censorship angle makes for good PR, the real reason may be a little different.
https://www.forbes.com/2010/01/15/baidu-china-search-intelligent-technology-google.html#633597518844
Between Baidu’s superior localised search and government protectionism, Google couldn’t make any headway against the Chinese competition, so decided to save face and pull out. It’s also possible that China’s reticence concerning foreign companies collecting data on their citizens conflicted with Google’s business model.
Still, given the amount of “bending of the knee” that Tim Cook still has to do to maintain a presence there, I often wonder if it’s worth it.
Sometimes it really isn't about Google
It isn't about "a few privacy concessions".
It is about following the law in whatever country you operate in.
Apple cannot base their Chinese iCloud servers outside of China since that would be illegal.
Even Google had to base their cloud servers for Chinese customers in China - having done so since 2005.
People need to stop pressuring US companies to fix what they do not like about the Chinese government. The opposite could happen, China could start pressuring companies for how the US or EU government runs and does things. Remember there is 1.3B of them to our 0.35B, their buying power is growing fast than ours. If you do not want other countries messing with our freedoms stop messing with theirs.
As I said to Ray a bit earlier it's not always about Google. It's OK to discuss Apple without saying "'yeah but.. But... GOOGLE!" as tho it's a magic word that makes whatever might be troubling all better.
Besides, there's a number of AI members that would prefer keeping Google out of so many discussions and vehemently said as much, yet it's most often some Apple fan who introduces them in an unrelated thread. A bit of a disconnect...
They do that because of people like you who would scream to high heavy if they do not pander to your belief system. If you are truly that concern what is going on in China go there and do something about it. As I said these kind of issues work both ways, if you do not want someone in your bedroom you tell you what is morally right stay out of their bedroom. You do realize China is the largest US debt holder, do you think they may have something to say about what our government does and does not do. BTW the US makes other countries do things because we hold money over their heads as well. It is not US companies jobs to fix things in other countries based on what you think is right and wrong. China could toss apple out, then what you just cost a bunch Americans their jobs.
Not that this is the sole reason for this decision, but Apple had iCloud account & servers outside China for a long time and what was in China was owned by Apple and China left Apple alone where they made google and other company put their servers in China under China control. What change to cause the policy change with Apple, it was the US government actions of spying on citizen and non-citizen information. China is in part just reacting to what the US is doing. Apple for the most part get away with a lot more in China than any other US companies. China treats Apple well and protects Apples business in China to some degree, not other company gets this treatment.