“Apple Inc. has begun keeping the personal data of some Chinese users on servers in mainland China, marking the first time the tech giant is storing user data on Chinese soil,” Gerry Shih and Paul Carsten report for Reuters.
“The storage of user data in China represents a departure from the policies of some technology companies, notably Google Inc., which has long refused to build data centers in China due to censorship and privacy concerns,” Shih and Carsten report. “Apple said the move was part of an effort to improve the speed and reliability of its iCloud service, which lets users store pictures, e-mail and other data. Positioning data centers as close to customers as possible means faster service.”
“The data will be kept on servers provided by China Telecom Corp Ltd, the country’s third-largest wireless carrier, Apple said in a statement on Friday,” Shih and Carsten report. “A source with knowledge of the situation said the encryption keys for Apple’s data on China Telecom servers would be stored offshore and not made available to China Telecom… Jeremy Goldkorn, director of Danwei.com, a research firm focused on Chinese media, internet and consumers [said], ‘On the other hand if they don’t store Chinese user data on a Chinese server they’re basically risking a crackdown from the authorities.’ Goldkorn added that data stored in the United States is subject to similar U.S. regulations where the government can use court orders to demand private data.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, if the data is really, legally out of reach of U.S. court orders, then Apple products are no longer “a danger to China national security,” right?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
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Chinese state-run media: Apple iPhone a danger to China national security – July 11, 2014