Apple has announced that its iCloud services in China will be operated by a state-owned firm in Guizhou beginning next month in order to comply with cloud computing rules in the new cybersecurity law, which was passed last summer. The move has raised concerns that it will allow government
Apple has announced that its iCloud services in China will be operated by a state-owned firm in Guizhou beginning next month in order to comply with cloud computing rules in the new cybersecurity law, which was passed last summer. The move has raised concerns that it will allow government authorities unfettered access to the personal data of iCloud users in China, which will be stored in Guizhou as of February 28. The BBC reports:
The firm, Guizhou on the Cloud Big Data (GCBD), is owned by the Guizhou provincial government in southern China. Guizhou is where Apple opened a $1bn (£738m) data centre last year to meet the regulations. iCloud data will be transferred from 28 February, Apple said. Customers living in mainland China who did not want to use iCloud operated by GCBD were given the option to terminate their account. […] Apple said the “partnership” with GCBD would allow it to “improve the speed and reliability of our iCloud services products while also complying with newly passed regulations that cloud services be operated by Chinese companies”. It added that Apple had “strong data privacy and security protections in place and no backdoors will be created into any of our systems”. However, some on social media have said the step gives Beijing more opportunity to monitor its citizens and others living in the country. [Source]
The announcement follow a series of controversies for Apple in China, including Tim Cook’s presence at the fourth annual World Internet Conference last year, and outrage over Apple removing virtual private network applications from its Chinese App Store amid a crackdown on VPN services.
More from The Wall Street Journal’s Yoko Kubota, who situates this into China’s tightening oversight on cloud computing and notes other recent cases of Apple acquiescing to Beijing’s demands:
At Quartz, Josh Horwitz notes a disclaimer in the new “Terms and Conditions” for China-based users informing them that both Apple and state-run GCBD will have access to all iCloud-stored data, highlights the specific relevant privacy concerns, and situates the move into a chilling Sino-U.
