Today Apple formally transferred its Chinese iCloud operations to a local firm in southern China. It also began hosting its iCloud encryption keys in China, instead of the US, for the first time. The move has been expected since last year when Apple announced its partnership with Guizhou - Cloud Big Data (GCBD), a Chinese firm supervised by a board ran by government - owned businesses, with close ties to the government and Chinese Communist Party.
Apple users with iCloud accounts registered in China will now have their data hosted by the GCBD center. Users who don't want their data handed over can choose to delete their Chinese iCloud accounts. Apple has told Reuters that it won't transfer accounts over to the new data center unless users first agree to the updated terms of service.
Since the news was first announced, security experts, lawyers, activists like China's Chen Guangcheng, and multiple nonprofit organizations have all weighed in to point out the potential security risks. Experts say the move could force Apple to obey various government requests to access Chinese iCloud data.
Meanwhile, Apple has said that GCBD's close ties to the government are actually a perk. In emails to mainland Chinese customers last month, Apple said that the move enables "us to continue improving the speed and reliability of iCloud and to comply with Chinese regulations. "
Source: The Verge
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