Vice News Interviews Tim Cook About Privacy
Reeve: But haven’t they moved to China? Meaning: it’s much easier for the Chinese government to get to them.
Cook: Now, I wouldn’t get caught up in where’s the location of it?. I mean, we have servers located in many different countries in the world. They’re not easier to get data from being in one country versus the next. The key question is [sic]: how does the encryption process work? and who owns the keys, if anyone?. In most cases, for us, you and the receiver own the keys.
Via Nick Heer:
So it’s noticeable — and notable — when any Apple executive is cagey, as is the case here.
[…]
I don’t think it’s fair to say that Chinese users’ privacy is not subject to compromise. The actual method of encryption may not be any different or weaker than in other countries, but the requirement to store keys in the country behind weaker legal protections for users makes it, in practice, less strong.
See also: Apple Removes Infowars From Podcast Directory.
How long has China required Chinese user data to be stored in China? Just curious as it seems like Apple just made the change recently.