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Apple: Chinese firm to operate China iCloud accounts

bbc.com

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Re: Apple: Chinese firm to operate China iCloud accounts

#21

Post by rdlecler1 »

alexeldeib wrote: post #3
emsy wrote: post #2

IMHO this is sending a strong signal to people like myself who mainly use an iPhone for privacy reasons. Regardless of whether or not the data is only stored encrypted at the 3rd party, their willingness to compromise in this regard is a strong indicator for their future actions and their commitment to privacy and security.

While you're not wrong, this strikes me as the cost of doing business in China. For comparison, AWS and Azure both operate under local partners in China. e: "strikes me as" == "is"; it's not really optional.

That cost of doing business seems to be getting more expensive all the time. At what point do we have to subsidize that cost with our own privacy and freedom?

Re: Apple: Chinese firm to operate China iCloud accounts

#22

Post by justaman »

chinatrnp wrote: post #15

Much as I hate Trump, I'd love for him to do something about China. If China won't open their tech markets maybe we force them to. PS: don't make this a Trump hate sub thread. Stay on topic if you reply to me

Don't mention Trump on this forum even if you preface what you say with disdain. You'll never go positive.

I agree that the US/EU needs to be harder on China. Its been very one sided in recent years. The real issue, I think, is their disregard for intellectual property. You bend over backwards to get into their market, then a year later a government backed firm with an identical product puts you out of business. They won't get away with that for long, believe you me.

Re: Apple: Chinese firm to operate China iCloud accounts

#23

Post by oh-kumudo »

kome wrote: post #5

In Europe we need to do like in China. Or our tech industry is doomed to stay small...

Seconded. Certain level of protectionism is good for business, Trump has proved that. We need to decentralize/democratize the tech industry across the globe, not concentrated in US.

EU should start providing incentives to local companies to build their own business that serve its own people, other than becoming US's satellite states.

Re: Apple: Chinese firm to operate China iCloud accounts

#24

Post by ISL »

cromwellian wrote: post #17

Money trumps principles plain and simple. My guess is this will continue until the day Apple sales in China decline below a certain level, then they’ll be a ‘brave, principled’ decision announced that they are shutting down iCloud in China or withdrawing from the market altogether.

In Apple's case, as the Apple manufacturing base is largely Chinese, the government has considerable leverage regarding corporate decisions.

Re: Apple: Chinese firm to operate China iCloud accounts

#25

Post by atonse »

kome wrote: post #18
cromwellian wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Protectionism isn’t going to make your tech industry globally competitive.

No, but who cares? Tencent, Baido, etc are not globally competitive, but they are very fine. You know what else is not going to make European tech industry globally competitive? The chronic lack of money, because it's all siphoned away by google, amazon, apple, and such. Do we need a global competition? Why? An internal competition in a huge market is good enough. China encouraged the development of a strong internal…

China is one country where the majority speaks a handful of languages (please don't attack me if this comment is ignorant, be nice)

But is it easy to get the EU countries to even agree on any of this stuff? (Genuinely asking, cuz I imagine it's insanely hard because each country has their own culture and priorities)

Re: Apple: Chinese firm to operate China iCloud accounts

#26

Post by Y_Y »

ISL wrote: post #19
dave84 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What course of action would you prefer: Willingly shut down iCloud in China or have iCloud forcefully shut down in China?

I'd prefer that China allow its citizens to freely access the global internet.

I was going to comment that I think the question referred to what course of action /Apple/ should take, but maybe fundamentally changing superstates is not off the table when you have multinational megacorp resources.

Re: Apple: Chinese firm to operate China iCloud accounts

#27

Post by venomsnake »

dave84 wrote: post #7
emsy wrote: post #2

IMHO this is sending a strong signal to people like myself who mainly use an iPhone for privacy reasons. Regardless of whether or not the data is only stored encrypted at the 3rd party, their willingness to compromise in this regard is a strong indicator for their future actions and their commitment to privacy and security.

What course of action would you prefer: Willingly shut down iCloud in China or have iCloud forcefully shut down in China?

Revolutionary one - unlock the iphone bootloader and let users use their devices in the ways they want. Which will make it a lot harder to censor in a central way.

Re: Apple: Chinese firm to operate China iCloud accounts

#28

Post by kome »

atonse wrote: post #25
kome wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but who cares? Tencent, Baido, etc are not globally competitive, but they are very fine. You know what else is not going to make European tech industry globally competitive? The chronic lack of money, because it's all siphoned away by google, amazon, apple, and such. Do we need a global competition? Why? An internal competition in a huge market is good enough. China encouraged the development of a strong internal…

China is one country where the majority speaks a handful of languages (please don't attack me if this comment is ignorant, be nice) But is it easy to get the EU countries to even agree on any of this stuff? (Genuinely asking, cuz I imagine it's insanely hard because each country has their own culture and priorities)

Look at the counterfactual, is having multiple languages stopping google to do business all over Europe? No.

Is having a different language a big deal? Also no.

Re: Apple: Chinese firm to operate China iCloud accounts

#29

Post by debt »

I absolutely believe Apple's foray into China is a huge misstep for the Apple brand.

Imagine when all the censorship and surveillance and the actions taking with personal data start surfacing, they're going to very quickly try to get out. Apple pulling VPN apps off the App Store is just the beginning.

It may be a big market, but I think Apple shouldn't be there under the Apple name, because stuff like this shows me that it's literally a different company.

It's simply not worth the business.

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