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Apple To Transfer Chinese iCloud Operations To Chinese Firm (bbc.com)
Apple's iCloud services in mainland China will be operated by a Chinese company from next month, the tech giant has confirmed, though Apple will still have access to all data stored on iCloud. The company said it had made the move to comply with the country's cloud computing regulations. iCloud accounts registered outside of China are not affected. BBC reports: The Chinese cyber security rules, introduced in July last year, include a requirement for companies to store all data within China. 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 $1 billion data center last year to meet the regulations. iCloud data will be transferred from February 28, 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.
Okay, so really, how does forcible transfer of assets constitute a free market?
But seriously, Mindtree that handles support for Microsoft is just a disaster. We opened several tickets in July when we first started moving to Azure, and not a single one of them has been resolved.
The other half of the walnut is: what protections is Apple putting in place to ensure that once the PRC's intelligence agencies have penetrated the data center and systems located in the PRC (because they will) that this foot in the door will not give them leverage to penetrate the rest of the system located in the US and EU?
China will not accept your freedoms.
Your brand accepts the laws under the Communist party in China.
What did the West think it would be like? All Tiananmen Square like with a digital democratic civil society forming around the US brand?
Communist governments do not allow freedom in. Communism controls brands so Communism has no competitors that can spread democracy and freedom.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
As the wise man said, only a fool trusts the man from china. Are you a foo!
Oh, so china's good enough for a data center, but fuck australia.
People here go to the App store or any of apple's cloud services to get one thing done, and then they leave, Apple loses out on incidental sales.
they're idiots.
"We're not going to implement the Chicomms' demands".
But they'll work with a partner who will. Probably keeps their nose clean while complying with regs, and side-stepping the issue for shareholders.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
They felt no need to state the very obvious implication - "of course, in a month they will no longer be *our* systems".
#DeleteChrome
... gives Beijing more opportunity to monitor its citizens and others living in the country.
OK with me.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
All the big tech companies seem to be in a giant rush to knuckle under to totalitarian regimes, and I'm not sure who's worse at this point. Google, whose motto seems to be "Sure, Be Evil!" or Apple, who is about to turn over all the records for every Chinese Apple customer to the Chinese Government?
Taking it up the arse seems to be apple's new policy. Go, Tim, go.
A move like this shows heâ(TM)s a slave to revenue. He should take a principled stand like Larry Page did.
Apple is being pushed around by the Chinese government. They really need to begin building automated plants in the US. China can suck it. The fall of the Western world started when we gave China the know-how and resources to build our cheap stuff more cheaply. Then they moved on t to better stuff. Now they're controlling the whole system. Apple will eventually lose much of their company if they stay in China. Get out now. Apple: you can survive on Western profits, you sellouts.
It added that Apple had "strong data privacy and security protections in place and no backdoors will be created into any of our systems."
That doesn't mean a whole lot when the Chinese company is the one running the physical machines, Apple. Or are you saying there's no way a MTTM attack can be introduced?
"However, some on social media have said the step gives Beijing more opportunity to monitor its citizens and others living in the country. "
However, privately, the NSA and the CIA expressed their disappointment at losing access to critical opportunities to monitor the citizens and others living in the country.