Apple fires back at Chinese state media over national security accusations

Tech giant Apple has fired back at Chinese state-run media, issuing a statement denying that iPhones are used to spy on its users’ location data.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, China Central Television attacked Apple, claiming location data sent to identify the location of Apple devices could be sued to compromise state secrets. It follows previous state media accusations of Apple being a “stale brand”, making faulty products and being arrogant.

In response, Apple has posted a statement on its Chinese website, in both English and Mandarin, stating it has “never worked with any government agency from any country” on implementing intelligence gathering features in its products.

“Calculating a phone’s location using just GPS satellite data can take several minutes,” Apple states. “iPhone can reduce this time to just a few seconds by using pre-stored WLAN hotspot and cell tower location data in combination with information about which hotspots and cell towers are currently being received.”

“It’s important to point out that during this collection process, an Apple device does not transmit any data that is uniquely associated with the device or the customer.”