14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has been often criticizes by Chinese authorities because thy do not fully cooperate and do not provide the system with full specs on their devices. The state-owned CCTV even went on accusing the Cupertino tech giant of spying Chinese officials with their iOS device.
The whole thing was denied by Apple and they have overly explained how their system works and how the user is actually in control of what he shares. Also the Chinese branch of Apple had to prove to their government that the locations and diagnostic information is something that any user can enable or disable on their device.
Using iCloud and having files stored on Apple's servers was another possible issues for the Chinese authorities. Therefore, Apple recently partnered a Chinese state-controlled partner for their cloud services.
According to the Wall Street Journal's Digits blog, Apple stores only encrypted data on China's Telecom servers. "Apple takes user security and privacy very seriously. We have added China Telecom to our list of data center providers to increase bandwidth and improve performance for our customers in mainland China" explained the Cupertino tech giant in a statement on Friday. The information was confirmed by another press release published on Fuzhou city government's website.
The cited source explains how Apple went through over 15 months of tests and evaluation with China Telecom. Now the company is Apple's only cloud service provider in China.
Apple is using iCloud and iCloud.com accounts for all their Internet-based storage. The service also works to back-up user files, settings, pictures and application data.