From: Wall Street Journal
The Morning Download: Apple Stores Data in China, as Internet Nationalizes
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Good morning. Apple Inc.’s decision to begin storing some of its users’ data on mainland China underscores how technology companies are adapting to digital nationalism in a post-Snowden world.
Apple said the partnership with China Telecom is based on improving the reliability of its iCloud storage service, which is used to back up data on all of its devices including iPhones and iPad. But as the WSJ’s Lorraine Luk notes, the Chinese government is pursuing investigations of the business practices of Microsoft Corp. and other tech companies. Last month, China’s influential state broadcaster called a location-tracking function offered by the iPhone “a national security concern,” because of a feature that learns the locations of places a user visits most frequently.
In that context, Apple’s partnership looks like an insurance policy to protect its China market.
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