China: The iPhone Is A 'National Security Concern'

China: The iPhone Is A 'National Security Concern'

The Chinese government-run national news network has called Apple's iPhone a 'National security concern' in relation to the Frequent Locations feature found on iOS 7.

In a regular noon-day broadcast the state-run TV organisation critisised the function with researchers claiming that those with access to the location data could potentially get hold of 'state secrets'.

The attack has come somewhat out of the blue especially as -- the Wall Street Journal reports -- the iPhone holds a 6 per cent market share in the country.

It may not sound like much but around 80 per cent of the smartphones priced over $500 in the country are actually iPhones showing that they hugely dominate the niche premium market.

The WSJ also claims that the broadcast could well have been related to the recent allegations by Edward Snowden who suggested that the NSA had been spying on top officials in China.

As a result the report not only hit back at Apple but said that all US technology firms had massive data centres that were 'gold mines' of information.

Apple certainly isn't the only company to come under fire from the Chinese government after it was revealed that it had banned the purchase of any computers running Windows 8 for official use.

Close

What's Hot