Apple Refutes Report On iPhone Threat To China's National Security

An anonymous reader writes "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," the company said Sunday in a bilingual statement on its China website. Users have to make the choice to enable the iPhones to calculate their locations, while "Apple does not track users' locations — Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so," the company said. The statement was in response to allegations by China's top state broadcaster that iOS7 software and its "Frequent Location" service posed a security risk. The data can be accessed easily, although labelled as "encrypted," and may lead to the disclosure of "state secrets," CCTV said.

Re:Any cell phone is a security risk.

[Noah Haders]

maybe iPhone is a risk because apple makes it hard for China to tap it.

um...

[Charliemopps]

Apple failed to mention the bit about, if a US government agency had contacted them and requested information or for a backdoor to be put into their device, they'd be required by federal law to lie about it or face charges of treason. In fact, given how unrestrained the NSA is at this time, this press release may have even been written at the request of a national security letter. It's terrifying that this is where we're at... but here we are none the less.

Next up, the NSA releases a statement: "Edward Snowden is a traitor and a jerk! Look how he's hurting nice companies like Apple!"

Re:noone trusts their cya legalese

[Cardoor]

people like me is funny. you're right. they probably can't, because as Charliemopps says in 'um...' below, and CeasedCaring says in 'Dear Apple', they lie, and are forced to lie. my point is to illustrate how easily their carefully crafted words can be obfuscating, so that perhaps some people who would otherwise be comforted by nice sounding denials don't take a simple statement at face value and instead, decide intelligently if the fact pattern supports their statements. if you are of the mind to believe and remain unawares, then godspeed.

Re:Apple refutes China but stays mum on...

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean that metal with nickel in it might cause people who are allergic to nickel to have a response?

How shocking.

Re:Why Apple Doesn't Track

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting point. They have a store called iTunes and it's not even on the web yet. (Amazon had web sales working in, what, 1995?) Every time I go to the iTunes site it wants me to download some special software, and they still can't make a sale without it.

FFS, web browsers aren't exactly obscure anymore.

Re:Of course not

[fizzer06]

"We have also never allowed access to our servers,"

Apple lies.

Re:Any cell phone is a security risk.

[Austerity Empowers]

Protectionism isn't something the G8 generally likes and has come under fire lately. Based on some things i've seen lately, I believe China (and perhaps india) have been spanked for their usual nonsense.

So maybe those people are now trying a different approach, rather than the normal protectionism that chinese companies engage in (using only their own suppliers, designing out foreign chips, bringing all mfg and design work to them so that they can control the supply chain), they're trying to hide behind FUD.