Apple
is selling out. It’s not about the latest version of the iPhone, but
the huge cache of personal data that will be going directly to the
largest, and one of the harshest, authoritarian regimes in the world:
the Communist government of China.
Given
the Chinese government’s continuing crackdown on human rights and
freedom of speech under President Xi Jinping, as well as its deepening
reach into Western democracies, Apple’s policies in China have
far-reaching implications for us all.
Last summer, Apple announced that it would be partnering
with Guizhou-Cloud Big Data, a state-owned company with Communist Party
connections, to build Apple’s first data-storage center in China.
Beginning Feb. 28, the iCloud content of Apple ID users registered in
China will be sent to and managed by Guizhou-Cloud Big Data.
Customers
registered in China, according to Apple’s new terms and conditions
agreement for the country, must “understand and agree that Apple and
G.C.B.D. will have access to all data that you store on this service,
including the right to share, exchange and disclose all user data,
including content, to and between each other under applicable law.”
In short, all
personal user information stored on the iCloud — including photos,
videos, text files, contacts, calendars and iCloud email — will be
shared with Guizhou-Cloud Big Data and could be available to the Chinese
authorities as well. Apple has said that G.C.B.D. will not have access
to the personal data stored in its facility without Apple’s permission,
but the new terms and conditions agreement appears to say the opposite.
Under
the agreement, Apple seems to be absolving itself of responsibility for
what the authorities may choose to do with personal data in G.C.B.D.’s
hands. Users who refuse Apple’s terms will be denied iCloud services.
Users who accept run the risk of unwittingly provoking the ire of the
aggressive police state, resulting in deleted data or accounts, or
harassment and imprisonment.
This
kind of partnership between an American company and a dictatorial regime
is at odds with the image Apple has built as a company committed to
privacy and a willingness to stand up to pressure from larger entities
like the United States government. In a 2015 interview with NPR, the
Apple chief executive Tim Cook emphasized that privacy “is a fundamental
human right that people have,” from a “values point of view,” not “a
commercial interest point of view.”
Unfortunately, it now seems that such “values” are taking a back seat to profits.
In
2017, Apple also announced it was halting the sale of virtual private
networks, apps that allow users inside China to get access to blocked
content that is critical for activists and regular citizens. IPhones in
China also no longer include some Western news outlets like The New York
Times on the News app.
In response to
criticism about these steps, Apple has blithely responded that it is
obeying China’s laws. Is this how American companies should respond to
dictatorial demands and arbitrary, unjust legal codes?
The
Chinese regime makes no apologies about its human rights violations and
seems not to care whom it crushes in its quest for power and control,
whether it is the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died last
year in Chinese custody, or the many human-rights lawyers and activists
who have been detained and tortured in recent years.
When
dealing with the Chinese regime, American companies should likewise not
apologize for their commitment to the fundamental values — human
rights, democracy, freedom of information, the rule of law — that have
allowed them to flourish. American companies should not follow practices
in authoritarian countries that are illegal in the United States.
It’s
hard to believe that Apple is caving in to the regime like this. The
only conclusion I am left to draw is that the company is O.K. with
taking part in the suppression of freedoms abroad while espousing
high-minded values at home.
To be fair, many American tech companies have been tripping over themselves to get into China. Facebook has reportedly been developing censorship software
so that it can win approval to operate in China, while the company’s
chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has long been courting the Chinese
leadership. For such companies, the Chinese market is simply too big of a
temptation when weighed against less quantitatively measurable things
like human rights and freedom of expression.
Those
companies, institutions and organizations that play an outsize role in
society should not shirk their responsibility to uphold social justice.
The Chinese people have been fighting for human rights for decades,
including the rights to privacy, freedom of speech and democracy. Many
have lost their lives doing so. Instead of aiding dictatorships and
following a misguided path to the future, Apple should return to its
core values and protect the rights of its users at home and abroad.
By Chen Guangcheng
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