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Apple CEO Tim Cook Meets with Top Chinese Official After iCloud Login Harvesting Claims

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Apple CEO Tim Cook met with a top Chinese government official in Beijing Wednesday to discuss the security of user data, reports Reuters. The meeting comes after web censorship blog Great Fire claimed earlier this week that hackers worked with Chinese authorities to harvest Apple ID information from Chinese users visiting iCloud.com.

Yesterday, Apple issued a statement acknowledging the attacks on its servers and launched a new browser security guide on its website. The guide stressed the importance of digital certificates, asking users to check for any certificate warnings in their browser and ensure that they are connected to iCloud.com versus a malicious third-party website that resembles the service's homepage.

China has become an increasingly important market for Apple, as the company now has eleven retail stores in the country and sells the iPhone on all three major wireless carriers. Apple also launched the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in China last Friday following a week of successful pre-orders.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple CEO Tim Cook Meets with Top Chinese Official After iCloud Login Harvesting Claims
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/10/22/tim-cook-chinese-official-meeting-icloud-claims/
MyopicPaideia

MyopicPaideia

macrumors 68020
Mar 19, 2011
2,155
980
Sweden
Just the fact that the meeting took place gives credence to the claim that a Chinese gov't agency was involved in some way.
 
M

Macist

macrumors 6502a
Mar 13, 2009
784
462
The USA intelligence agencies harvest huge amounts of our online data from major IT companies.

The Chinese just want parity in the arms race.
 
JosephAW

JosephAW

macrumors 603
May 14, 2012
6,022
7,998
I'm surprised that the Chinese govmnt even allows ios8 with all its security and encryption on the device unless apple has given them the back door key. The ppl there don't have any right to privacy under communism.
 
DELLsFan

DELLsFan

macrumors 6502a
Jan 6, 2009
836
12
Macist said:
The USA intelligence agencies harvest huge amounts of our online data from major IT companies...
Click to expand...

That's right. They have access to and have stored in the great NSA data center ALL of your documents, pictures, data AND meta-data that you've EVER uploaded to iCloud (and other services) for many years.

No amount of encryption, password-changing or firmware / hard-wired security will protect our data or privacy, people - as long as the government (and others) have their backdoors / or are given the key to access. Period.
 
NickPhamUK

NickPhamUK

macrumors 6502
May 6, 2013
356
197
TantalizedMind said:
And then what? Hire Americans to make Apple products?.. I hope you don't mind spending $2,000 for an iPhone.. with a contract!
Click to expand...

Not outsourcing to China = going back to USA to hire people. You have strong logic there mate.

If you have forgotten, let me remind you that there are tons of other countries around the world where Apple could outsource to. In some countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia, guess what, the labor is even cheaper than it is in China.

But I guess Apple will never pull out of China. It's a market of 1.3 billion people. Unless people around the world start boycotting Apple or the Chinese government forbids Apple from selling stuff there, why would Apple pull out? The ultimate goal for every firm is to maximize profit after all.
 
Parasprite

Parasprite

macrumors 68000
Mar 5, 2013
1,698
144
MyopicPaideia said:
Just the fact that the meeting took place gives credence to the claim that a Chinese gov't agency was involved in some way.
Click to expand...

Evidence-wise it doesn't make a difference one way or the other.

They were involved: They want to control the incident for [insert malicious or diplomatic reasons here].
They weren't involved: They want to do a bit of damage control. They don't want **** to hit the fan because they're being blamed for something they didn't have anything to do with.

----------
NickPhamUK said:
Not outsourcing to China = going back to USA to hire people. You have strong logic there mate.

If you have forgotten, let me remind you that there are tons of other countries around the world where Apple could outsource to. In some countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia, guess what, the labor is even cheaper than it is in China.

But I guess Apple will never pull out of China. It's a market of 1.3 billion people. Unless people around the world start boycotting Apple or the Chinese government forbids Apple from selling stuff there, why would Apple pull out? The ultimate goal for every firm is to maximize profit after all.
Click to expand...

Or...you know, just using labor from a different country with less labor restrictions. I'm sure they would be happy to take it.
 
M

macnisse

macrumors 6502
Jun 26, 2010
395
1
Well played Tim, a CEO face-to-face meeting = more impact and indeed shows a strong concern about the matter.
 
byke

byke

macrumors 6502a
Mar 29, 2007
724
60
LDN. UK
One good thing for Chinese users is when they want to order a new copy of iOS, all they need to do is ask for number 8.
 
iapplelove

iapplelove

Suspended
Nov 22, 2011
5,324
7,638
East Coast USA
macnisse said:
Well played Tim, a CEO face-to-face meeting = more impact and indeed shows a strong concern about the matter.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what it means. We all witnessed how many iPhones sold in China,it's a huge market with tons of revenue. Tim wasted no time sending someone else to represent apples concerns,must have felt he was the one that needed to be present.
 
gnasher729

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
FieldingMellish said:
Maybe it's not too late to pull out of China.
Click to expand...

Why would Apple pull out from China?

If Apple doesn't sell iPads and iPhones to Chinese customers, someone else will sell them tablets and phones. And you can bet that these tablets and phones will be less secure than iPads and iPhones, so by pulling out the ones who are suffering are Apple and the Chinese people. And Tim Cook doesn't want either to suffer.

----------
JosephAW said:
I'm surprised that the Chinese govmnt even allows ios8 with all its security and encryption on the device unless apple has given them the back door key. The ppl there don't have any right to privacy under communism.
Click to expand...

There is no backdoor key.

That's the whole point. Even if the police takes your locked iPhone, brings it to Apple's headquarters together with a search warrant, Apple is not capable of unlocking the phone and reading any data on it.
 
bbeagle

bbeagle

macrumors 68040
Oct 19, 2010
3,542
2,982
Buffalo, NY
Parasprite said:
Evidence-wise it doesn't make a difference one way or the other.

They were involved: They want to control the incident for [insert malicious or diplomatic reasons here].
They weren't involved: They want to do a bit of damage control. They don't want **** to hit the fan because they're being blamed for something they didn't have anything to do with.
Click to expand...

If they WEREN'T involved, why would they need to do any damage control? That makes ZERO sense.

Rumor is that Parasprite is cheating on his wife. Ok, Parasprite! Do some damage control!
 
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