4 ms·

Even in mainland China, where iOS does have a large amount of changes to comply with local regulations, Apple does not pre-install any apps from anyone.

alephnerd 11mo ago
China doesn't require pre-installed apps but the Chinese government require all data processing and storage to be conducted within China with complete source code access. India chose to back off on data sovereignty [0] because it would have had a side effect of making Indian IT Offshoring less competitive plus to help make negotiating a US-India BTA easier [1]. [0] - https://verfassungsblog.de/cross-border-data-flows-and-indias-digital-sovereignty/ https://verfassungsblog.de/cross-border-data-flows-and-india... [1] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-25/us-seeks-india-trade-deal-on-e-commerce-crops-and-data-storage https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-25/us-seeks-...
- iancarroll 11mo ago
  I don't think there is any reason to assume they would allow forced code execution just because they allow data residency for mainland accounts. And unfortunately, China is likely a much larger and more profitable consumer market than India - presumably they can still export phones produced inside India without this.
- browningstreet 11mo ago
  > making Indian IT Offshoring less competitive So does a security backdoor in every mobile device used by said Indian offshoring staff.
- tacker2000 11mo ago
  Most people in China install Wechat by choice, anyway
  - throwaway2037 11mo ago
    This is an interesting point. Is there anyone in mainland china that does do not install WeChat plus AliPay installed? It is hard to live without it! Literally, you can buy a kilo of veg from a wet market stall and pay with AliPay.
bilbo0s 11mo ago
>Even in mainland China [..] Apple does not pre-install any apps from anyone. That's because China has no regulation obliging them to do so. China takes the other, more comprehensive, route to privacy invasion. Sucking up every bit of data at the router.
- iancarroll 11mo ago
  The GFW is certainly looking for traffic to block, but it is not really going to invade much privacy, as it cannot decrypt anything using HTTPS/TLS.
  - largbae 11mo ago
    GFW does indeed have man in the middle capabilities per the recent leaks of Geedge tech used in it. Your laptop might throw a warning for the fake signed cert, but devices in China that trust Chinese root CAs would not.

alephnerd 11mo ago

China doesn't require pre-installed apps but the Chinese government require all data processing and storage to be conducted within China with complete source code access. India chose to back off on data sovereignty [0] because it would have had a side effect of making Indian IT Offshoring less competitive plus to help make negotiating a US-India BTA easier [1]. [0] - https://verfassungsblog.de/cross-border-data-flows-and-indias-digital-sovereignty/ https://verfassungsblog.de/cross-border-data-flows-and-india... [1] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-25/us-seeks-india-trade-deal-on-e-commerce-crops-and-data-storage https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-25/us-seeks-...

iancarroll 11mo ago
I don't think there is any reason to assume they would allow forced code execution just because they allow data residency for mainland accounts. And unfortunately, China is likely a much larger and more profitable consumer market than India - presumably they can still export phones produced inside India without this.
browningstreet 11mo ago
> making Indian IT Offshoring less competitive So does a security backdoor in every mobile device used by said Indian offshoring staff.
tacker2000 11mo ago
Most people in China install Wechat by choice, anyway
- throwaway2037 11mo ago
  This is an interesting point. Is there anyone in mainland china that does do not install WeChat plus AliPay installed? It is hard to live without it! Literally, you can buy a kilo of veg from a wet market stall and pay with AliPay.

bilbo0s 11mo ago

>Even in mainland China [..] Apple does not pre-install any apps from anyone. That's because China has no regulation obliging them to do so. China takes the other, more comprehensive, route to privacy invasion. Sucking up every bit of data at the router.

iancarroll 11mo ago
The GFW is certainly looking for traffic to block, but it is not really going to invade much privacy, as it cannot decrypt anything using HTTPS/TLS.
- largbae 11mo ago
  GFW does indeed have man in the middle capabilities per the recent leaks of Geedge tech used in it. Your laptop might throw a warning for the fake signed cert, but devices in China that trust Chinese root CAs would not.