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| Gatehouse, Swain's Lock, C&O Canal, Potomac, MD (Bergeron Image) |
(Author’s Note: In my prior post of Sunday, March 13, 2016, I
discussed the problems facing U.S. security agencies as they attempt to obtain
release of encrypted information stored on the iPhones of actual and potential
terrorists. The post below is the second
half of that topic.)
American high-tech firms with international operations continue
to expand production in mainland China.
Luring them is the siren song of higher profit margins made available by
an apparently endless supply of low-cost labor, as well as the prospect of
expanded revenues for products and services sold within the Chinese internal market.
One American firm with such ambitions is Apple. That company, according to my assessment of Herman’s
article referred to in my previous post, has responded to demands by Chinese government
officials concerning customer information much differently than it has to the recent
request made by the FBI to unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino terrorist
shooter.
Herman writes that “Apple
is the first foreign company that has agreed to let China carry out security
checks on its devices in obedience to the counterterrorism and national
security law passed [in China] in
November, 2014.”
He adds that “Apple obligingly
stores its information on Chinese users on servers in China; it has also agreed
to inspections by Internet police of the data stored there.”
His revelations get to the very core (no pun intended!) of
why Apple may be so intransigently hypocritical about its refusal to share
information with the FBI while simultaneously caving in to Chinese government demands
for customer surveillance.
