Reporters Without Borders urges journalists to quit Apple iCloud China by Feb. 28By Cedric Alviani, Reporters Without Borders,Agencies
2018/02/07 16:54
TAIPEI (RSF) -- Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on journalists and bloggers who use Apple iCloud China to change their geographic region or to close their accounts by Feb. 28, when control of their data will pass to the Chinese state.
When VPNs, which can be used to circumvent censorship and surveillance, were withdrawn from Apple’s Chinese App Store at the Chinese government’s request last August, RSF voiced concern that Apple product users could one day find their personal data being shared with “the extended family that is the Chinese Communist Party. “
This nightmare is unfortunately in the process of being realized. “To improve the speed and reliability†and “comply with Chinese regulations,†control of iCloud in China is to be transferred to Guizhou-Cloud Big Data (GCBD), a company linked to the government of the southern province of Guizhou, on Feb. 28.
RSF alerts journalists and bloggers using iCloud China to the danger that this migration poses to their security and the security of their sources, and urges them to migrate their account to another geographic region or to close it by Feb. 28. Most of the personal data of Apple app users, including contacts, photos, files, email, Internet connection history, geolocation data and passwords, are stored on iCloud. Other global companies such as Microsoft, IBM and Amazon also store data in China, but in their case the amount of personal data is much smaller. ... Rest of story at Taiwan News
