Apple has started to store personal data for some Chinese users on servers belonging to China Telecom, the first time it has used the country to house iCloud account and information storage.

Reported by 9to5mac, the move was then confirmed by a statement from Apple itself.
“Apple takes user security and privacy very seriously,” said the statement.

“We have added China Telecom to our list of data centre providers to increase bandwidth and improve performance for our customers in mainland china. All data stored with our providers is encrypted. China Telecom does not have access to the content.”

The statement was reported by Reuters

The news is noteworthy because other companies have adopted a different stance to storing user data in China. Google, for instance, does not do so, citing concerns over user privacy and censorship.

There are practical arguments in favour of moving user data to Chinese servers, as per the Apple statement.

For instance, closer proximity to local users should increase reliability and performance for Apple’s Chinese user base.