Chinese Database of Apple's iCloud to Be Controlled by State-Run Firm - Reports

The changes will be made in line with the new Chinese law stipulating that business information and data about the country's Chinese citizens gathered within China should be stored on domestic servers and not transferred abroad without permission.

"iCloud service for users in the Chinese mainland will be operated by Guizhou-Cloud Big Data starting February 28, 2018. The new operator will be in charge of mainland Chinese customers’ legal and financial relations," Apple told People’s Daily.

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The company also told the newspaper that it would notify the Chinese mainland users about the upcoming changes for the next seven weeks starting on Wednesday. The users' data will be transferred to Chinese servers as soon as the users accept the new terms and conditions. Otherwise, their data will be backed up on iCloud until they accept the new terms.

"Apple has strong data privacy and security protections in place and no backdoors will be created into any of our systems. Our cooperation with Guizhou-Cloud Big Data will improve the speed and reliability of our service, which is also in accordance with China’s new Cyber Security Law," Apple told the Chinese newspaper.

The BBC broadcaster shared a copy of the notice, sent by the IT giant to its users in China. The message reads that the data subject to transfer to Chinese services will include photos, videos, and data backups.