Comment by bitmapbrother | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bitmapbrother | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Your defense of Apple's cooperation with the Chinese government is repugnant. Apple could have easily decided not to open data centers in China if they really valued the privacy of their Chinese users. Tim Cook said that privacy is a human right. Apparently, Tim Cook doesn't believe Chinese citizens deserve privacy because they happily hand over all of their data to the Chinese government. It's quite clear that that the additional revenue generated by the Chinese App store and iCloud services far exceeds the human rights of their users.

>The difference between Apple and Google is that Google is doing things which may not be desirable despite no law compelling them to.

No, the difference between Apple and Google is that Google decided to leave China rather than cooperate with the government.

>If the US government (or any other government) manages to pass a law which says that Apple must turn over all the user data they have - or that they must collect certain types of data, there is nothing Apple can do other than comply - or shut shop.

Shut shop? You mean like how Google shut shop?

I am not defending Apple. My point is that no corporation an (or should) is above the law. If the law is problematic, it should be fixed. But no one can be allowed to go against it.

Let’s say Apple leaves China. So what next? Do you have any contingencies outlined where the people of China get their rights?

And by the way, it’s not about Cook. Decisions like these are made by the board with shareholders’ agreement. I recommend you learn how things work before you go bashing.

They did, and they're back in China now.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/30/google-is-quietly-formulat...

There is a simple fact here you seem to be ignoring. If you want to do business in China, you follow Chinese laws.

If you have issues with China's human rights, you should encourage your local government to take up that issue. Your post reads like a bunch of raw emotion and statements like "Tim Cook doesn't believe" that which are just impossible for anyone BUT Tim Cook to know. Relying upon supposition of what you think a person thinks, and extending that to a company to arrive at a conclusion of: money > human rights is... pretty sad as arguments go.

I must have missed the part where Google is letting state run Chinese companies run their data centers and sharing the data with the Chinese government. When that happens then Apple and Google will be on equal footing when it comes to China.

>If you have issues with China's human rights, you should encourage your local government to take up that issue. Your post reads like a bunch of raw emotion and statements like "Tim Cook doesn't believe" that which are just impossible for anyone BUT Tim Cook to know. Relying upon supposition of what you think a person thinks, and extending that to a company to arrive at a conclusion of: money > human rights is... pretty sad as arguments go.

What's really sad is that Apple's revenue from China is far too lucrative for Tim Cook to really care about human rights and privacy. Tim Cook knows he'd probably be ousted as CEO if he ever tried to exit China.

> I must have missed the part where Google is letting state run Chinese companies run their data centers and sharing the data with the Chinese government. When that happens then Apple and Google will be on equal footing when it comes to China.

Are you suggesting Google is being allowed to store Chinese citizens’ data on servers outside China? If the servers are within Chinese territory, it doesn’t matter who is hosting them - they are subject to the same laws.

I thought it was pretty clear. Google has no data centers in China which means they don't subject their users to unfettered government searches of their data.

Google has been trying for years to get back into China and they have no problems acquiescing to whatever the Chinese government requires to do so [1].

[1] https://twitter.com/amir/status/1009899502512115712

Reply on news.ycombinator.com