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TECHNOLOGY Thursday 13 July 2017

Apple to open data center in China with government ties

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE counts by customers out- Chinese government has
AP Technology Writer side China will continue to to funnel those demands
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — be stored in data centers through the U.S. court sys-
Apple will open a data in the U.S. and eventually tem, a more difficult pro-
center in mainland China Denmark. cess to negotiate.
with ties to the country’s Other major technology Cardozo recommends that
government, raising con- companies, including Am- Apple customers in main-
cerns about the security of azon, Microsoft, and IBM, land customer turn off the
iCloud accounts that store have already made similar iCloud feature on their
personal information trans- deals to run data centers in iPhones and other devices
ferred from iPhones, iPads mainland China to remain to protect their information
and Mac computers there. in the good graces of the from prying eyes.
The data center an- country’s Communist gov- Data stored on the devices
nounced Wednesday will ernment. themselves should remain
be located in the Guizhou But Apple’s acquiescence secure as long as they lock
province and run by a is striking because CEO Tim In this Friday, May 13, 2016, file photo, a man uses his mobile them with passwords that
company owned by the Cook has made preserv- phone near an Apple store in Beijing. only the user knows. Even
Chinese government. Ap- ing customers’ privacy a Associated Press if the government seizes a
ple is teaming up with the company cornerstone. The 20 percent of Apple’s rev- people routinely back up in device, Apple won’t have
company, Guizhou on the Cupertino, California, com- enue. iCloud accounts. the keys to unlock data.
Cloud Big Data, to com- pany underscored that Even though it’s working But experts believe the But with iCloud, Apple does
ply with a new Chinese commitment last year in a with a government-owned data center will make it have the keys. The excep-
law requiring data-storage high-profile battle with the company, Apple sought to easier for the government tion is passwords and credit
providers to keep the infor- U.S. government over a le- reassure customers in Chi- to retrieve the information card data synced with
mation of mainland China gal demand to crack open na that the arrangement through legal demands or iCloud Keychain.
customers on computers the iPhone of a suspected won’t compromise their other means. Apple will find Ajay Arora, CEO of data
located within the country. killer in a mass shooting. privacy. “As our custom- it more challenging to resist security specialist Vera,
The Guizhou data center Apple has a strong finan- ers know, Apple has strong any order from a Chinese also warns that Apple’s
will store photos, video, cial incentive to toe the data privacy and security court to give authorities partnership with a compa-
documents and other per- line in China because that protections in place and there access to an iCloud ny owned by the Chinese
sonal information upload- country already is its third- no backdoors will be cre- account that they want to government increases the
ed to iCloud accounts by largest market behind ated into any of our sys- sift through, predicted Nate chances that authorities
Apple customers in main- North America and Europe, tems,” the company said in Cardozo, a senior staff at- could secretly pry their way
land China, even when with all signs pointing to it a statement. torney specializing in priva- into iCloud accounts.
traveling outside the coun- become an even bigger What’s more, Apple says it cy for the Electronic Fron- “It’s like Apple is putting the
try. Backups and other profit center. China cur- will hold to the security keys tier Foundation, a digital fox in charge of the hen-
data stored in iCloud ac- rently accounts for about protecting the data that rights group. Currently, the house,” Arora said.q

ISPs surprise net neutrality fans on protest day

By TALI ARBEL munications Commis- supports an “open inter-
AP Technology Writer sion’s net-neutrality rules, net” and believes compa-
NEW YORK (AP) — AT&T has it’s backing Wednesday’s nies shouldn’t block web
a surprise for tech firms and “day of action” denounc- content or slow down vid-
internet activists supporting ing AT&T and other ISPs. eos from other providers.
net neutrality, the principle Of course, AT&T doesn’t Rather, AT&T says it merely
that bars internet service actually agree with the aim opposes the FCC rules that
providers from playing fa- of the protest — to support set it in place. Comcast
vorites with websites and the 2015 regulation that and Verizon joined AT&T in
apps. the FCC wants to over- making that distinction. ISPs
Although AT&T has fiercely turn now that Republicans don’t like the FCC’s ap- This image shows a banner, top, on the Netflix website defending
fought the Federal Com- are in charge. AT&T says it proach because it treats net neutrality, Wednesday, July 12, 2017.
internet service as a util- Associated Press
ity and comes with more tion is the only set of net- more muted. Netflix put a
oversight. They worry about neutrality rules that courts gray banner at the top of its
price regulation and say have upheld. Internet ac- home page and is tweet-
the rules hurt broadband tivists and tech firms hope ing out “gif” animations in
investment. Tim Karr, the that the protest will pressure support. Amazon’s website
campaign director for Free Congress and the FCC, the has a small square inviting
Press, an advocacy group way a highly visible 2012 users to “learn more.” Twit-
that supports net neutral- online protest — including ter is promoting “net neu-
ity, slammed the ISPs for the blackout of Wikipedia’s trality” as the top trending
“simply attempting to fake English-language site for topic in the U.S. Google
the funk, pretending to sup- 24 hours — helped kill anti- tweeted a blog post. Small-
port net neutrality while op- piracy legislation that tech er tech companies includ-
posing the (FCC) rules that companies equated to in- ing Airbnb and Etsy have
make it an enforceable ternet censorship. fat banners on their home
reality.” The 2015 regula- This year’s online protest is pages.q