“Apple has emerged as a rare voice of reason in the war of words between China and the west over cyber security, with word that the global tech giant has decided to host some of its users’ personal data on Chinese-based computers,” Doug Young writes for Forbes.
“The US and China have taken steps to curb the use of hardware from each others’ companies in their domestic infrastructure over the past year, saying such equipment could make their systems vulnerable to spying,” Young reports. “Apple said it wasn’t concerned about security risks from using servers hosted in data centers owned by China Telecom, one of the country’s 3 state-owned carriers that control most of the domestic market for telecoms services. It cited its sophisticated encryption technology for its confidence, noting that such technology would protect its data even if someone managed to access China Telecom’s servers or intercept data as it traveled over domestic telecoms networks.”
“Apple’s move was a business decision, since the storage of user data on locally based computers that are geographically closer to its Chinese users will give them faster service,” Young writes. “But the move was also a smart public relations tactic by Apple, which has come under fire in China on a number of fronts over the past year for some of its local business practices.”
Much more in the full article here.
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Apple starts storing user data on servers in China for first time – August 15, 2014
Chinese state-run media: Apple iPhone a danger to China national security – July 11, 2014