What price privacy when Apple gets into bed with China?

Here’s your starter for 10. Question: Apple’s website contains the following bold declaration: “At Apple we believe privacy is a fundamental human right.” What ancient English adage does this bring to mind? Answer: “Fine words butter no parsnips.” In other words, what matters is not what you say, but what you do.

What brings this to mind is the announcement that from now on, iCloud data generated by Apple users with a mainland Chinese account will be stored and managed by a Chinese data management firm – Guizhou-Cloud Big Data (GCBD). “With effect from 28 February 2018,” the notice reads, “iCloud services associated with your Apple ID will be operated by GCBD. Use of these services and all the data you store with iCloud – including photos, videos, documents and backups – will be subject to the terms and conditions of iCloud operated by GCBD.”

The new terms and conditions for Apple users in China contain a clause. “If you understand and agree,” it reads, “Apple and GCBD have the right to access your data stored on its servers. This includes permission sharing, exchange and disclosure of all user data (including content) according to the application of the law.”

So what’s behind this change? Well, basically, Apple is moving the personal data and content of its mainland Chinese users to a place inside the country’s borders to comply with China’s sweeping new cybersecurity law which requires foreign companies to store all of the data they generate from China inside China’s borders.

Henceforth, cloud services in China have to be operated by Chinese companies, so foreign outfits must either lease servers in China or establish joint ventures with local partners. Apple has chosen the latter option, which, it says, “will allow us 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.”



Source: theguardian

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