Mark Zuckerberg Takes Shot At Apple By Saying Facebook Would Not Store Data In China

Detailing Facebook’s roadmap on privacy and data encryption, Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday took a shot at Apple saying that there is a difference between providing a service in a country and storing the data there. In a 3,238-word long blog post, Zuckerberg wrote how Facebook is building its new “privacy-focused platform” around six principles. The social media giant will avoid building data centers in countries with poor human-rights records to prevent authoritarian governments from getting access to people’s private data. With this, Facebook tried to claim high moral ground over Apple.

“There’s an important difference between providing a service in a country and storing people’s data there. As we build our infrastructure around the world, we’ve chosen not to build data centers in countries that have a track record of violating human rights like privacy or freedom of expression. If we build data centers and store sensitive data in these countries, rather than just caching non-sensitive data, it could make it easier for those governments to take people’s information,” wrote Zuckerberg.

The reason behind Facebook stating such strong worded post is because Apple officially transferred its Chinese iCloud operations to a local firm in South China last year. Not just that, Apple is now hosting its iCloud encryption keys at Guizhou-Cloud Big Data.

Having said that, Zuckerberg is willing to tradeoff hosting Facebook in such countries or it could mean getting their services blocked as well. “Upholding this principle may mean that our services will get blocked in some countries, or that we won’t be able to enter others anytime soon. That’s a tradeoff we’re willing to make. We do not believe storing people’s data in some countries is a secure enough foundation to build such important internet infrastructure on,” added blog.

The firm is trying to show its commitment towards privacy and security protections. The belief is to safeguard the future of the internet and privacy by not storing people’s data in places where it won’t be secure.―BGR