“US president Barack Obama was sharply critical of China’s newest security demands for foreign companies this week, saying that plans to ‘snoop and keep track’ of users of US-made technology were unacceptable,” Heather Timmons writes for Quartz. “Chinese officials are ‘going to have to change if they are to do business with the United States,’ he said in an interview with Reuters.”
“But Obama’s remarks completely ignore the fact that the most prominent and profitable technology company in the world has reportedly already agreed to China’s demands. Apple fully accepted China’s new cyber-security rules in January, according to Chinese state media,” Timmons writes. “Analysts told Quartz they believe the company is giving China access to the underlying source code for the iPhone and other devices and services, which could potentially allow Chinese officials to spy on users inside and outside of China. Last summer, Apple started storing China’s iPhone users’ data in China, breaking with other major tech companies who had concerns that such a move could enable the government to surveil users.”
Timmons writes, “Apple’s capitulation to China’s demands weakens Obama’s position, and makes life even more difficult for other US tech companies, analysts say.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’d like to see proof of these accusations against Apple from sources a bit more credible than “Chinese state media” and “analysts.” Until then, this shit has “hit piece” written all over it.
Furthermore, forget Apple, Obama’s position couldn’t be much weaker:
• Obama administration demands master encryption keys from firms in order to conduct electronic surveillance against Internet users – July 24, 2013
• FBI blasts Apple for protective users’ privacy by locking government, police out of iPhones and iPads – September 25, 2014
• Short-timer U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder blasts Apple for protecting users’ privacy against government overreach – September 30, 2014
Related articles:
Obama criticizes China’s demands for U.S. tech firms to hand over encryption keys, install backdoors – March 3, 2015
Apple agrees to subject products to Chinese government security inspections – January 22, 2015
FBI blasts Apple for protective users’ privacy by locking government, police out of iPhones and iPads – September 25, 2014
Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for government, police – even with search warrants – September 18, 2014
Obama administration demands master encryption keys from firms in order to conduct electronic surveillance against Internet users – July 24, 2013
“The biggest problems we are facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all and that’s what I intend to reverse.” – Barack H. Obama, campaigning on March 31, 2008
The “H” is not really for “Hussein,” it stands for Hypocrite.
Is there any proof, or at least a reasonable motive, for Apple to be “giving China access to the underlying source code for the iPhone”?
Because that doesn’t really follow the pattern of Apple’s previous responses to demands for source code access or how it has responded to invasive government information requests in the past.
Really, it just sounds like some some bullshit an idiot would make up, rather than something actually happened.
I can’t remember where I read it or any of the specific details, but I could have sworn the story came out a month or two ago that Apple was going to grant Chinese officials some degree of access to prove that there were no built-in backdoors for the US government to exploit and spy on the Chinese.
That is also the reason for Apple building data centers in Asia, to my limited knowledge: to appease the Chinese government in terms of their concerns that the US is spying on them.
Frankly, I don’t like the idea of China having access, either to their own people’s data or anyone else’s. That said, I also think that it’s reasonable for China to want to ensure that nobody else is spying on their citizens’ data, either.
This goes back to the point that Obama’s protestations against China’s policies are a direct contradiction towards his own statements on Apple and others encrypting their hardware and software without granting the US government access. He is indeed a hypocrite if he believes that the US and UK should have access to backdoors in our personal devices, but other countries do not have the right to demand the same.
And that’s why there can be no backdoors for anyone. If one country has the right to illegally access its citizens’ data in the name of “security,” every country should share that right.
MacDailyNews, January 22, 2015:
Apple agrees to subject products to Chinese government security inspections
Thanks.
You’re welcome.
Apple apparently complied with a Chinese safety inspection. I don’t know the exact nature of the inspection, but it’s more likely to involve automated testing suites for detecting backdoor internet traffic and known security faults, rather than Apple handing over the iPhone’s source code (arguably the company’s most important intellectual property) to a third party to do whatever they want with it.
Apple also complies with government requests for customer’s private information, when their is judicial warrants targeting particular suspects in a criminal investigation. Apple refuses government requests for installing backdoors or dragnets. Apple has established a pattern of complying with reasonable and lawful government requests, while defying overly invasive and illegal ones.
Keeping China’s iCloud data on Chinese servers is a completely practical request. Apple doesn’t have any other way to ensure their Chinese customer’s privacy from foreign spying, and the Chinese have every reason to doubt the privacy of data kept on USA servers. Moving servers closer to the users also lowers network latency too.
The underlying UNIX source code is open source, and available to anyone who wants the source code. Apple is not about to giveaway its proprietary source code for inspection. 😀
“Is there any proof, or at least a reasonable motive, for Apple to be “giving China access to the underlying source code for the iPhone”?”
NO!
Cook has apparently agreed to the Chinese “…government to run NETWORK SAFETY EVALUATIONS on its products…” THAT’ ALL!
“There were rumors of us keeping backdoors and providing data to third parties,” Cook reportedly said during the meeting. “We have never had any backdoors and never will”.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-has-accepted-censorship-in-china-report/
Whoops, that was supposed to be general reply to the article, not directed at this comment. I have no response to this one-dimensional political comment. My apologies to the community for accidental troll feeding.
I concur with both of your posts, sniffer. Apple is not providing China with any source code that is not already open source and ITAR safe.
With respect to storing user data for Chinese customers in servers located within China, I have a few thoughts. First, Apple does not collect the same types of data as many other tech companies, such as Google. Second, Apple purposely limits potential corporate access to personal user data. So the risks of locating that information in China are greatly reduced. China would have no more success than the NSA. Third, there is no reason that data could not be located in two places…
1.5 more years of this charade
You mean the Chinese government is going to disband in 18 months? Really? Because as far as I can tell, the Obama administration hasn’t done anything wrong in this instance. The criticism (rightly or, as it appears, wrongly) is being aimed at Apple.
Do you see the problem with our argument? kaplanmike? You’re actually making sense, and aren’t following some ill-defined and more often than not baseless dislike of our president.
After all, why not blame Obama for things that have nothing at all to do with him? It’s easier that actually honestly looking at whatever issues vex them.
Do you really think your party will do more than talk tough to China? Your righty buddies over there always talk about the big spending Democrats. At least the Obama admin cut the national deficit significantly after inheriting George’s 2 military adventures and tax cuts for the 1%.
Your Repubs have taken over many of the states. The Dems have their hand in a few states, no doubt, but look at these big spender states run by the GOP:
Alabama – $950 million
Alaska – $3.4 billion
Arizona – $1.5 billion
California – budget SURPLUS – Democrat controlled
Kansas – $1.0 billion
Louisiana – $1.4 billion
New Jersey – $2.0+ billion
Pennsylvania – $1.8 billion
Virginia – $2.4 billion
Wisconsin – $2.2 billion – full Repub. legislature – turned a state budget surplus into a huge deficit – by the 2016 candidate to be, Scott Walker!!
“H” is for hack.
Tyrants hack their way through laws, people’s privacy, next door neighbors, customs, and people’s pocketbooks.
Barack H. Obama. The “H” stands for:
• Hapless
• Hated
• Hateful
• Hazardous
• Hellish
• Hollow
• Horrendous
• Horrible
• Horrid
• Horrific
• Humble (ha ha!)
• Hurtful
• Hypocrite
Yeah, some PoliTard just had to chime in and lower the intelligence level of the thread. Never ends around here. (o_O)
But while we’re on the subject, I have no love for the Barrack buffoon either. Just DON’T force some Neo-Con-Job dickhead down our throats in 2016, thank you.
That’s pretty silly, even for this forum.
This article reads like something Gaagle would pay for.
It also don’t make any sense in that Apple has always said that there’s no backdoors into its products. To suddenly give Chinese officials access to these supposedly nonexistent backdoors is problematic on too many levels to mention.
This had better be merely TechTard journalist blahblah:
Analysts told Quartz they believe the company is giving China access to the underlying source code for the iPhone and other devices and services, which could potentially allow Chinese officials to spy on users inside and outside of China.
NOT acceptable! But before I have an aneurism over it, I’m going to wait for ACTUAL news on the subject. “Analysts told” whoever/whatever is MEANINGLESS these days.
Meanwhile, everything Apple has stated in public indicates exactly the OPPOSITE of what this story posits. 😛
FSCK you China! We know exactly what you’d do with access to surveillance of Apple users. More crime, your specialty. (Not that #MyStupidGovernment isn’t just as culpable!)