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28 March 2018 By Jeffrey Goldfarb Follow @jgfarb

Keeping Chinese iCloud user data inside the People’s Republic invites controversy amid Facebook’s latest woes. After Yahoo shared emails with Beijing in 2004, Jerry Yang and other bosses were hauled up to Capitol Hill and called moral “pygmies.” Apple should brace for blowback.

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Amnesty International started a social media campaign against Apple and Chief Executive Tim Cook on March 22, accusing the company of making customer data vulnerable to scrutiny by the Chinese government.

Apple started hosting Chinese iCloud user accounts in a Chinese data center on Feb. 28, saying it had to comply with new laws that require remote storage services to be operated by local companies and to be stored domestically for Chinese citizens. The company added that it had advocated against the laws.

"Tim Cook is not being upfront with Apple's Chinese users when insisting that their private data will always be secure," said Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International's director of East Asia. "Apple's pursuit of profits has left Chinese iCloud users facing huge new privacy risks."

Apple said it was very clear with customers about the change, alerting them in emails and other notifications in the eight weeks leading up to the new arrangement.

"Each country in which we do business has its own customs, culture and legal process," the company said in a statement to Reuters. "While our values and beliefs don't change from country to country, we are subject to each country's laws."

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