Reciprocity for Apple

As my readers know, I am a great fan of reciprocity, so it should be of no surprise that I don’t mind if Apple finally gives in to China’s law on storage of data in a Chinese company for those operating stuff in China.  All I want is reciprocity.

What reciprocity demands here is that no foreign company, at least no Chinese company- can store data on US nationals.  They must subcontract that work out to a US company, and by the way, not a subsidiary or business entity tied to a foreign company.  It could not, for example, be a US operating location of TenCent, or any company that is controlled by a Chinese company through beneficial stock ownership of 5% or more, Chinese members of the Board of Directors, or other business interests that conflict with the goal of having a US company control the data.

All the Chinese network equipment being sold in the US, the computers, the hard drives, et al cannot be trusted.  Our security depends on that storage of data being in US hands.  They can continue to sell those Huawai phones but all the call storage systems must be in US hands.  Why should they be treated any different than companies operating in China under Chinese laws?  Right now the answer is “ We don’t get access to Chinese markets unless we follow Chinese laws” and that is reasonable enough.  But we can’t do that without reciprocity for those laws which have gone beyond rediculous to control data on every person who uses Chinese equipment.

There has to be consequence for this kind of law.  And, let’s ask the question:  If US nationals use Chinese equipment is China storing data on that useage in China?  All the available evidence suggests they are getting it.  Apple can convince me that having my computer made in China is OK if the data storage for iCloud is in the US.  I’m not so sure about Microsoft or HP.  Where is all of their data stored?  Reciprocity is a really interesting concept and applying it uncovers some of the practices of businesses who never thought about security in these terms.  They were too busy making money.