> In fact I seem to be one of the few people on the planet who seems to have actually dug into this exact issue while others only offer the typical FUD we've seen about how Apple's encryption works in China.
I think instead of researching how Apple works in China, you need to start doing some research on how the Chinese government works and their track record on legal matters and rule of law.
Also, the segment in the Senate hearing you referenced shows a senator who obviously does not have a good grasp on encryption technology asking bumbling questions about encryption. I have paraphrased the section here:
> Senator: Do you sell phones in China? Are they encrypted?
> Apple: The phones are the same and all of our phones are encrypted across the world
Yes, obviously all phones have encryption but the Senator did not clarify what was being encrypted here and Apple took advantage of this in the response.
> Senator: You're telling me that they [China] allows you to sell devices without you allowing them to breach the encryption and gain information about the users?
> Apple: You're 100% correct
Once again, the question posed was incoherent. Of course there is no "breaching of encryption" here - the Chinese government just asks for the keys or the data. It's all about language here.
If this Senate hearing is your case for why data is safe in China, I honestly fear for all the political and religious dissidents that are trusting Apple for their safety.
I think there might be misunderstanding about what exactly is "encrypted" and how. The comment 3 or 4 levels above says:
> The same "vulnerability" of being able to respond to legal requests for iCloud data that exists in China exists everywhere else in the world.
And an article on Apple's site [1] confirms that most data in the cloud are "encrypted", but without E2E encryption, possibly in a reversible way. That article also notes that while messages are E2E encrypted, a cloud backup might contain a key to decrypt them:
> Messages in iCloud also uses end-to-end encryption. If you have iCloud Backup turned on, your backup includes a copy of the key protecting your Messages. This ensures you can recover your Messages if you lose access to iCloud Keychain and your trusted devices.
So it is possible that the data on the phone are encrypted, the data in transit are encrypted, the data in the cloud are encrypted for every user in the world, but the cloud operator has the encryption keys for some of the encrypted data: Chinese operator for data of Chinese users and Apple for everyone else. This doesn't contradict neither with Apple's statement nor with the article nor with that comment above.
The question and his answer were both completely clear. And most importantly, it's perfectly consistent with what Apple has said multiple times. You can believe they lied to a federal court and Congress if you want, but I certainly don't.
I think instead of researching how Apple works in China, you need to start doing some research on how the Chinese government works and their track record on legal matters and rule of law.
Also, the segment in the Senate hearing you referenced shows a senator who obviously does not have a good grasp on encryption technology asking bumbling questions about encryption. I have paraphrased the section here:
> Senator: Do you sell phones in China? Are they encrypted? > Apple: The phones are the same and all of our phones are encrypted across the world
Yes, obviously all phones have encryption but the Senator did not clarify what was being encrypted here and Apple took advantage of this in the response.
> Senator: You're telling me that they [China] allows you to sell devices without you allowing them to breach the encryption and gain information about the users? > Apple: You're 100% correct
Once again, the question posed was incoherent. Of course there is no "breaching of encryption" here - the Chinese government just asks for the keys or the data. It's all about language here.
If this Senate hearing is your case for why data is safe in China, I honestly fear for all the political and religious dissidents that are trusting Apple for their safety.