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Comment by jjulius | Hacker News Reader

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jjulius

Headline is somewhat misleading - this applies to Chinese iCloud accounts, not all iCloud accounts.

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The headline is not misleading at all, they are doing exactly what I expected

The headline is ambiguous.

Ambiguous != misleading - the latter implies intent

That’s a common connotation, sure. But it’s not part of its meaning, I frequently see the word “misleading” used without any notion of intent.

No, it doesn’t.

Ambiguous and Misleading is an effect or consequence of a statement. Neither indicate any intent behind the statement. In other words, a statement can be misleading despite of benevolent intention.

> The headline is not misleading at all, they are doing exactly what I expected

“They” being the submitter, it’s click bait, no date and misleading headline

And it doesn't move anything you don't store on iCloud. So don't store things on iCloud and there's nothing they can access. For example iMessage messages aren't on iCloud in clear text unless you enable that feature.

How do they determine if your iCloud account is Chinese. If you use a Chinese SIM card? Access from a Chinese IP? Neither? Both?

Depending on that it could still affect someone from the US for example, if they took a business trip to China. Or if something maliciously routed your internet traffic through China.

iCloud accounts are region specific, it’s a pretty involved process to change it. You have to have a local payment source like a credit card.

Okay, this makes me a little more comfortable - does Apple state this as being how they determine data residency?

Small correction: the credit card is not needed if you go through specific steps like a free app. Then you can select “none” as the payment method in every country I’ve tested so far.

From the article:

> The change only affects users who set China as their country on Apple devices and doesn’t affect users who select Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan.

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