iCloud's Terms and Conditions in China Mainland

apple.com

4 pointscapableweb2 comments

This is the license agreement Chinese users have to agree to when they use iCloud from Apple, but are actually run by Chinese internet services company Guizhou on the Cloud Big Data Industrial Development Co., Ltd., (GCBD).

This is to "to improve iCloud services in China mainland and comply with Chinese regulations"

In the license agreement it's stated:

"You understand and agree that Apple and GCBD will have access to all data that you store on this service, including the right to share, exchange and disclose all user data, including Content, to and between each other under applicable law"

"You acknowledge and agree that we may, without liability to you, access, use, preserve and/or disclose your Account information and Content to law enforcement authorities, government officials, and/or a third party"

Was announced at October 01, 2019

GCBD was nationalized by the Chinese government six months after Apple forced users to opt in to moving data to their servers.

The problem isn't really that the data is hosted locally, but that the servers with the Apple user data (and encryption keys to access it) are owned and operated by the Chinese government.

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