Reporters Without Borders or Reporters Sans Frontières(RSF), a non-profit NGO that promotes freedom of information and freedom of the press calls on Chinese reporters and journalists who are using Apple iCloud to close their accounts or relocate by February 28, 2018, when control of their data will pass to the Chinese state.
This is because of the Apple’s move of outsourcing the Chinese iCloud operations to a firm which has ties with the local government, by February 28.
“RSF alerts journalists and bloggers using iCloud China to the danger that this migration poses to their security and the security of their sources, and urges them to migrate their account to another geographic region or to close it by 28 February,” the report reads.
Apple iCloud stores the majority of an iPhone or Mac users’ personal data like photos, contacts, geographic locations, emails, browsing history, geo-location data and many more.
The Threat
However Apple is promising that it won’t give any backdoor access to the the content, but there is no way of being sure about this, Cédric Alviani, the head of RSF’s East Asia bureau told. “Knowing the Chinese government’s determination and the extent of the means of pressure at its disposal, it will end up getting its way sooner or later, if it hasn’t already,” she added.
It is also being told that Apple’s lawyers have illusions about the confidentially, which is why they added in their user agreement that says: “Apple and GCBD have the right to access (…) all user data (including content).”
This is not the only time that RSF expressed grave concerns over the Apple’s compliance with the Chinese Government. In August, RSF reported its concerns when VPNs were withdrawn from Apple’s App Store of China, since the government considers them as illegal.
The World Press Freedom has also declined in the year 2017 and hit an all time low.