Apple Employee Threatens to Leak User’s iCloud Data

Re:Apple Employee Threatens to Leak User’s iCloud Data by threwaway-1 on Thursday March 08, 2018 @09:46AM (#16544598)

Something about this article feels "off", as if it were a fabricated and unsubstantiated story meant purely to sow uncertainty over the integrity of Apple's security in China. It felt off enough that I bothered to look into who this "sixth tone" publication is and create a throw-away -- according to foreignpolicy.com[1], it's affiliated with and at least partially funded by the state-owned Shanghai United Media Group.

[1] http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/06/03/china-explained-sixth-to...

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Re:Apple Employee Threatens to Leak User’s iCloud Data by jtbayly on Thursday March 08, 2018 @10:15AM (#16544789)

So what's your takeaway? I would assume that the last thing the state would want to do is sow uncertainty about Apple's security in China. This would lead me to the conclusion that the story is real.

However, I can imagine another scenario. Assume that Apple's storage in China is still entirely safe from the state, but that Apple's main competitors are totally in bed with the state. In that case, the state could want to get people off of Apple, even as Apple moves the data into China.

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Re:Apple Employee Threatens to Leak User’s iCloud Data by threwaway-1 on Thursday March 08, 2018 @11:08AM (#16545197)

The latter would be my takeaway as well, based on how effectively Google's search technology was extricated from China -- to Baidu's and the surveillance state's benefit, despite the results from Baidu being about as effective at finding useful information as AltaVista was at the end of it's reign.

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Re:Apple Employee Threatens to Leak User’s iCloud Data by konceptz on Thursday March 08, 2018 @10:09AM (#16544747)

One area to explore is the editor listed as David Paulk. https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidpaulk/ https://twitter.com/davidpaulk

At first glance his twitter feed looks pretty normal for a journalist from US living in China.

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Re:Apple Employee Threatens to Leak User’s iCloud Data by gruez on Thursday March 08, 2018 @10:08AM (#16544736)

>it's affiliated with and at least partially funded by the state-owned Shanghai United Media Group.

what's the motivation for the chinese government here? if anything it makes china look bad because the sequence of events are:

1. force foreign company to relocate data there

2. apple moves user data there to comply

3. surprise! china facility gets hacked

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Re:Apple Employee Threatens to Leak User’s iCloud Data by threwaway-1 on Thursday March 08, 2018 @10:54AM (#16545076)

4. Chinese populous resigns themselves to the eluded-to fact that Apple's devices will not offer privacy from the state even though it's only iCloud that we presume to be affected; consumer buys domestic device that is easier to spy on

5. Surveillance state mission accomplished!

I don't know, I suppose when you insert a state actor, it's the conspiracy equivalent of Godwin's Law.

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