“Apple’s website in China has published a detailed response to accusations by the country’s state owned media, refuting claims that iOS tracks users’ locations in a firm but politely worded statement,” Daniel Eran Dilger reports for AppleInsider.
“A posting titled ‘Your Location Privacy,’ presented in both Chinese and English on Apple’s Chinese website, states ‘Apple is deeply committed to protecting the privacy of all our customers. Privacy is built into our products and services from the earliest stages of design. We work tirelessly to deliver the most secure hardware and software in the world,'” Dilger reports. “Alluding the advertising-supported nature of Google’s Android, Apple’s statement continued, ‘unlike many companies, our business does not depend on collecting large amounts of personal data about our customers.'”
Dilger writes, “Instead, Apple wrote, ‘we are strongly committed to giving our customers clear and transparent notice, choice and control over their information, and we believe our products do this in a simple and elegant way.'”
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“The tracking function is used to speed up applications designed to show iPhone users their own location or assist in driving directions to avoid traffic,” Jeff Green reports for Bloomberg. “It can be turned off, Apple said in its statement. Personal location information is stored only on the phone, protected by a user password, and isn’t available to third parties, the company said. ‘We appreciate CCTV’s effort to help educate customers on a topic we think is very important,’ the company said in the statement, according to an English translation provided by Apple. ‘We want to make sure all of our customers in China are clear about what we do and we don’t do when it comes to privacy and your personal data.'”
“Apple, Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. are among U.S. companies criticized by state-run media amid an escalating spat over cyberspying and hacking allegations. The tensions follow indictments by U.S. prosecutors of five Chinese military officers for allegedly hacking into the computers of American companies and last year’s revelations by former security contractor Edward Snowden of a National Security Agency spying program,” Green reports. “Last month, a commentary on the microblog of the People’s Daily newspaper said Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook cooperated in a secret U.S. program to monitor China.”
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Related article:
Chinese state-run media: Apple iPhone a danger to China national security – July 11, 2014
Why Apple really values your privacy – unlike Google, Facebook, or Amazon – June 25, 2014