‘Apple has surrendered too’: Fury as China occupies iCloud

Netizens are furious Apple has handed over its iCloud operations in China to a government-owned company.

An Apple store in Zhuhai in China’s Guangdong province. Picture: Bloomberg

Netizens are furious Apple has handed over its iCloud operations in China to a government-owned company.

From February 28, all Apple’s cloud-based data services for people in China will be managed by Guizhou-Cloud Big Data, which will store all of its users’ data within China.

GCBD is controlled by the committee responsible for the defence industry in Guizhou province. Apple said all of the data stored with iCloud — including photos, videos, documents and backups — would be subject to the terms and conditions of iCloud operated by GCBD, which would have access to all the content.

Social media commentator HF responded: “What does this mean? That Big Brother can watch you more easily.”

HADVDE said: “Some ­people are saying they are worried about what this means for their privacy. No worries, we don’t have privacy anyway, as long as we live in China, whether we use mobile phones, go online or use apps.” And Woca said: “Apple has surrendered too.”

Apple formed a partnership with the Chinese company last July to construct a $1.26 billion data centre in the mountainous southwest province of Guizhou, which President Xi Jinping represented at November’s national communist party congress.

China’s Cybersecurity Law, effective from last June, requires all such companies to store all data generated in China inside the country. Microsoft, Amazon and IBM have also announced they are complying with the new rules.

Apple said customers who do not wish to use iCloud operated by GCBD have the option to terminate their accounts.