Thread by @jacknicas

🚨NEW: Apple is jeopardizing its Chinese users’ data and augmenting the Chinese government’s censorship to placate authorities and keep its business running.

Here is our multiyear investigation into Apple's Faustian bargain in China: nytimes.com/2021/05/17/tec…

Let’s start in Guiyang, a city in southwestern China where a building a quarter-mile long has the flags of Apple and China flying out front.

Inside, Apple is preparing to store its Chinese users' data on computers owned and run by the Chinese government.

Photo: @KeithBradsher

Tim Cook has said the data is safe. We found that Apple has largely ceded control to the government.

State employees physically manage the servers; Apple stores the encryption keys on those servers; and it ditched the encryption it uses elsewhere after China wouldn't allow it.

We learned this via internal Apple docs and interviews with 17 current & former Apple employees and 4 security experts.

The experts and Apple engineers said Apple's compromises would make it nearly impossible for it to stop the Chinese government from gaining access to the data.

“We have never compromised the security of our users or their data in China or anywhere we operate,” Apple said in a statement.

Apple added that it still controlled the encryption keys and that its new encryption technology in China is more advanced than what it uses elsewhere.

Since Apple moved data to China, it has given the Chinese authorities the contents of an undisclosed number of iCloud accounts in nine separate cases.

Apple had never provided such data in China previously. The reason why? American law prohibited it.

But now Apple has granted legal ownership of iCloud data in China to a Chinese state-owned company -- a move designed to get around American law.

Apple also added this highlighted portion to its iCloud terms and conditions in China. apple.com/legal/internet…

Meanwhile, Apple has become a powerful tool in China’s vast censorship operation.

We found that Apple proactively censors its Chinese App Store, using software and employees to flag and block apps that Apple managers worry could upset Chinese officials. nytimes.com/2021/05/17/tec…

Apple has deemed a number of topics off limits in China, including Tiananmen Square, Falun Gong, the Dalai Lama, and independence for Tibet and Taiwan.

Meanwhile, Apple hosts apps from the Chinese paramilitary group accused of detaining Uyghurs. theinformation.com/articles/apple…

I analyzed @SensorTower data and found that 55,000 apps have disappeared in China since 2017, including foreign news outlets, gay dating services & encrypted messengers.

The disappearances have soared recently, in part because Apple is removing games without a government license

In one case, Apple tried to keep apps from a critic of the Chinese government off of iPhones in China.

Apple added him to its "China sensitivities list" and trained employees and software to look for his name in apps, according to court documents filed last week.

When his app still got published, an Apple manager said in an email, "This app and any Guo Wengui app cannot be on the China store." Apple fired the employee who approved it.

Apple said it fired the worker for poor performance and removed the app because it was illegal in China.

The China critic in this case was Guo Wengui, a Chinese billionaire who has a history of peddling misinfo. (See this January piece.)

His apps that were the focus of Apple spread claims of Chinese government corruption, according to court documents.
nytimes.com/2020/11/20/bus…

Apple said it removed apps to obey Chinese laws.

“These decisions are not always easy, and we may not agree with the laws that shape them,” it said. “But our priority remains creating the best user experience without violating the rules we are obligated to follow.”

Why is Apple doing all this?

Apple built its company on top of China; nearly all of its products are made there. And the Chinese government spent billions to make that happen.

So, China made Apple very rich -- and now it's making it undercut its values.
nytimes.com/2020/08/19/tec…

Here is Apple's full statement on our story.

After Apple sent this, I worked with the company to understand what it believed to be wrong in our story and then made changes to correct any outdated information and to include their view when needed.

This thread reflects a fraction of the revelations in our story. There is much more, including Apple employees on the record, Tim Cook’s contradictions, and perhaps why "Designed by Apple in California" vanished from the backs of iPhones.
nytimes.com/2021/05/17/tec…

I encourage you to read the full story.

But if you’re just going to go to a news aggregator for the highlights, well, I beat them to it.

Here are five highlights from our investigation: nytimes.com/2021/05/17/tec…

Thank you to my coauthors, @zhonggg and @daiwaka, and of course our editor, the selfless @jimkerstetter, who did an ace job bringing it to fruition. He's been providing feedback on my reporting on this since early 2019.

The biggest thanks, however, go to our many sources, who took the time and the risk to speak with us and share documents.

If you can help shed more light on Apple or other American tech companies in China, DM me for my Signal number or email me at [e-mail].