Apple bows to Chinese government

Apple backs down: The Chinese government has demanded that Apple no longer outsource control of Chinese users data to US-based servers, but hand them over to a Chinese company.

This is likely to give Chinese authorities access to the personal data of Chinese users.

Apple informed the users in the passed weeks. Users of Apples service iCloud were informed, that their data is not longer stored on servers in the USA. Since February 28th, is Guizhou-Cloud Big Data (GCBD) the server provider for the data of Chinese users. GCBD is a state-controlled internet company based in Guizhou Province in southern China.

Affected are iCloud users with a Chinese Apple-ID.

The measure is based on new Chinese cybersecurity law, that is in place since last year. According to the new law, personal data of Chinese users fall under Chinese law and not, like before, under the law, the provider falls under.

For the diffraction under the Chinese law, Apple is heavily criticized.