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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.
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.
China is not a free market...
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?
There is no "free" market... that's a BS construct sales pitch, it doesn't exist. Everyone regulates trade. Everyone.
As the wise man said, only a fool trusts the man from china. Are you a foo!
No one is forcing Apple to do anything. They can just close their services to China if they don't want to follow the regulations, same as every one else. Just ask Google.
How about the EU? And all the other countries that do similar things?
Companies must follow the laws of the countries they operate in film at 11.
"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)
This is undoubtably for 'security', not that it is a free market.
If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>
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.
religion of peace is an oxymoron.
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?
Apple is "voluntarily" doing this because the only other option is the complete loss of Chinese access - and probably all Chinese assets including manufacturing and intellectual property. How long could Apple survive if the PLA starts selling "knockoff" Apple phones and computers that are built in previously-Apple-controlled factories by previously-Apple-controlled technicians? After nationalizing all the Foxconn facilities?
Tim Cook controls NOTHING that isn't in China's pocket.
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.
China is not a free market...
dude, where have _you_ been whilst the unethical pump-and-dump and blatant insider trading has been manipulating crypto-currencies world-wide? :)
Microsoft does this with Azure. Their EU operation is run by a separate company, so they cannot be compelled to hand over data to US law enforcement because they have a complete separation and no one in Microsoft has access to the data in the first place (at least, in theory). I believe the other big cloud providers have similar things, because otherwise they can't sell hosting to any company that needs to comply with the GDPR (i.e. anyone in the EU).
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No other country imposes this kind of rule. China won't let data be stored outside its borders, fine. But it won't let a foreign company own and operate a data center within its borders, so Apple now has to pay the Chinese government to use servers in a datacenter owned by the government. So, since the government own the servers on which any Apple user's data would be stored, it has access to the user data and Apple's data. IP ripe for harvesting.
Did an EU government tell MS that they couldn't build their own datacenter, they had to use one owned by the government?
No it isn't! No government tells a company they can't run their own datacenter or require them to use one owned by that government.
Nope, they simply told Microsoft that no company could legally do business with Microsoft if they operated their own datacenter.
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Just in California :-) (sarcasm in case you didn't recognize it)
Who did?
The EU, by passing the GDPR.
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