The pictures, the emails and the text messages of the users in China are now reported to be managed by a division of the state owned company China Telecommunication. Privacy experts warned that the shift could make the user’s data vulnerable to the State’s surveillance. Apple Company said that the step to keep the user data locally was passed to comply with the Chinese authorities. Apple announced in 2017 that it was going to partner with the local Chinese company, Guizot-Cloud Big Data Industry Development in managing operations of ICloud services for the users in China. Early this year, in February, an announcement was made that those ICloud data users residing in China would move to a brand new data center in the province of Guizhou.
Apple Company reported that the shift was conducted so that it could observe the local cybersecurity laws. Apple sent a note to Reuters saying that they cheered against iCloud exposure to the laws. However, they were unsuccessful. The same arrangement had now been complicated by a new agreement that was made between the state-owned company, Chinese Telecommunication and Apple’s Chinese iCloud operator. Apple organization established that China’s Telecommunication’s Tianyi Cloud division, was signed with GCBD to deliver storage for iCloud China.
The changes in operation that took place meant that the information about iCloud users in the Republic of China, including photos and emails, are now being handled by the state-owned service. This was a move that has been reported to have led to great worry from privacy promoters. These promoters were anxious that the whole issue will give the Chinese government effortless entree to private information.
The deputy regional director of research at Amnesty International’s office in the city of Hong Kong, Joshua Rosenzweig, argued that the new deal with the state-owned Telecommunication Company placed Apple’s Chinese user at very great risk. He went on to argue that the move undermined Apple’s allegation that it values customer’s privacy earnestly. The Apple Company should allow themselves to be led by their thirst for profits and end up putting the Chinese Users at very great risk. They should hold onto their grounds. Apple had famously launched its Mac line. After the launch, it seemed as if when it came to privacy policies, Apples thinks in a perspective that everyone was more equal than the other.
