Apple accused of giving Chinese government control over local data – By Saqib Shah (Engadget) / May 18 2021
It also allegedly deleted tens of thousands of apps at the behest of censors.
Operating in China requires foreign tech companies to submit to the government’s strict censorship and cybersecurity laws. Just ask Apple. The iPhone maker has been reproached by civil rights activists over its compliance with the country’s convoluted rules that target dissent. In the past few years, Apple has been accused of acquiescing to Chinese censors to remove a podcast app, a raft of mobile games and a map app used by Hong Kong’s pro-democracy campaigners. Worryingly, more revelations detailing its cozy relationship with the Chinese administration keep surfacing. A damaging new report uncovering the way it handles local data could create another ethical nightmare for the company.
According to a slew of documents reviewed by the The New York Times, Apple has “ceded control” of its data centers in Guiyang — which is reportedly due to be completed next month — and in the Inner Mongolia region to the Chinese government.
The compromises reportedly occurred in the aftermath of a law passed in 2016 that required all “personal information and important data” collected in China to remain in the country. Subsequently, Apple allegedly moved the iCloud data of its Chinese customers from servers located outside the country to the network of a Chinese state-owned company, known as Guizhou-Cloud Big Data (GCBD). It did this on the advice of its China team, according to the Times, as part of a project known internally as “Golden Gate.” This also allegedly allowed Apple to protect itself from American laws, which forbid US companies from handing over data to Chinese law enforcement.
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