You heard it right! Apple has accepted Chinese government’s request to throw open its hardware and software for security audit. This move will help quell the country’s ‘back door’ surveillance concerns.
There’s was no way Apple could ignore the world’s most populated nation’s diktat. (China, being one of the biggest markets for its products.)
Apple CEO Tim Cook agreed to China’s State Internet Information Office request to carry out tests on iPhones, iPads and Mac computers. Once the audit is over, the company would continue selling iPhones in the country.
China and Apple share a history of distrust. In fact, last summer a government run television program had accused Apple’s iPhone to be a threat to the nation. The culprit in this case was a feature called “frequent locations.” The television program alleged that the feature could track people’s location in the country. The program expressed fears that those with access to this feature could pose a risk to the nation. For they could access insider information about China’s economic situation and even state secrets and share it with U.S. spy agencies
Apple, though, brushed off the allegations saying that the feature is encrypted. Plus, it could turned off. But then, it had no way out, but agree to what China requested.
Cook in a statement issued in July said,”Apple has never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products or services. We have also never allowed access to our servers. And we never will. It’s something we feel strongly about.”
In fact, in the past U.S. Hardware firms such as IBM and Cisco experienced blacklash in China.
The U.S. and China issues have not been one-way street. In May last year, U.S. had charged five members of the People’s Liberation Army with stealing secrets from US companies.
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