Sam Oliver
The official website of the city of Fuzhou, in the People's Republic of China, on Thursday posted a now-retracted statement saying that Apple had completed the transfer of iCloud data to a Jiangxi Province datacenter owned by China Telecom. Apple on Friday then confirmed that it is in fact using China Telecom data centers to store iCloud user data locally.
According to the statement, Apple began the project — which was completed on Aug. 8 — some 15 months ago. There is no word on why the bulletin, first spotted by iCloud.net, was withdrawn.
In a statement to AppleInsider provided Friday, Apple confirmed the earlier leak, saying that the localized servers will improve speed and reliability for its customers.
"Apple takes user security and privacy very seriously. We have added China Telecom to our list of data center providers to increase bandwidth and improve performance for our customers in mainland China. All data stored with our providers is encrypted, China Telecom does not have access to the content."
Apple's siting of data within mainland Chinese borders may come as a surprise to some, given the company's firm stance on privacy and security. Apple attempted to quash those concerns by revealing that the encryption keys for user data would be stored offshore and would not be available to China Telecom.
The Chinese central government is notoriously invasive, most recently handing down a ruling forcing users of instant messaging services like WeChat to register with their real names and making it illegal to share political information without a license.
"Some people are damaging other people's rights and interests and public security in the name of freedom of speech," one spokesman for China's State Internet Information Office said of the new rules. "Cyberspace cannot become a space full of disorder and hostility," said another. "No country in the world allows dissemination of information of rumors, violence, cheating, sex and terrorism."
On Thursday, AppleInsider attempted to verify that iCloud data was staying within China, but was unable to do so. Analysis of iCloud data transfer from Shanghai saw packets flowing to Singapore, where supposed iCloud partners Microsoft and Amazon operate cloud computing clusters.
Apple had previously been linked to the construction of a new datacenter in Hong Kong — a special administrative region of China that operates under a western-style legal system — but the company is not known to have struck such a deal. Google moved its Chinese operations to the former British colony after clashing with mainland censors.
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37 Comments
Not to sure what to make of this story. Could be nothing much more than just making access more efficient locally, as Apple says.
Not to sure what to make of this story. Could be nothing much more than just making access more efficient locally, as Apple says.
I am sure that is a large part of it for Apple.
Although, I am sure that the NSA is not happy. However, I am sure that the Chinese equivalent to the NSA is very happy.
[quote name="mknopp" url="/t/181841/apple-now-storing-local-china-icloud-data-in-china-telecom-datacenters#post_2579686"][QUOTE name="anantksundaram" url="/t/181841/apple-now-storing-local-china-icloud-data-in-china-telecom-datacenters#post_2579680"] Not to sure what to make of this story. Could be nothing much more than just making access more efficient locally, as Apple says.[/QUOTE] I am sure that is a large part of it for Apple. Although, I am sure that the NSA is not happy. However, I am sure that the Chinese equivalent to the NSA is very happy. [/quote] If, as recently happened, a US judge can demand that Microsoft turn over the data in its servers in Ireland, and that judgment holds, it won't be long before China can ask for, and be granted access to, data from US servers. :\
"No country in the world allows dissemination of information of rumors, violence, cheating, sex and terrorism."
Yea they do, it's the grand old US of A! Just look at all the rumors about Apple products, all the violent and sexual games and movies. As for cheating, I'd say 90% of analysts are involved in a combination of rumors and cheating. I won't touch the terrorism part but China is involved in that as much as the US is.
[quote name="anantksundaram" url="/t/181841/apple-now-storing-local-china-icloud-data-in-china-telecom-datacenters#post_2579680"]Not to sure what to make of this story. Could be nothing much more than just making access more efficient locally, as Apple says.[/quote] ...and so there could be more to this? I would have expected some surprise on your part that Apple did not use Hong Kong servers as some other Western companies do to avoid Chinese censors and citizen tracking. Uploading iCloud data to Chinese controlled servers invites suspicions of Apple's motivation does it not? If the story gets more widespread reporting I'd expect some Apple damage control.