A handful of Chinese ministries have told employees to stop using Apple’s iPhones at work, citing national security risks amid heightened geopolitical tensions with the United States, according to several people familiar with the matter.
The orders were handed down in August to employees at ministries whose portfolios are focused on investment, trade and international affairs, according to five separate sources with knowledge of the situation.
The measures were understood to be aimed at eliminating perceived national security risks from using telecommunication devices made by a US company, sources said.
So are they instead going to use Android phones? Because, I hate to break it to them, Google is also an American company.
Android is open source so it doesn’t matter who makes it. You can audit the code and remove what you dislike. North Korea does the same thing with Linux.
Or put whatever you want…
Yep! It’s the same dynamic with freedom of speech. It’s creates a more open society, but then people can also lie to you and say bad things. Open source == democracy.
They wouldn’t use a Google version of Android. It’s open source so I wouldn’t be surprised if they had their own fork of it filled with their own changes and removing any Google specific functionality that they would roll out in their own market.
No, they just take the AOSP and modify it with their own shit
Chinese Android phones that are sold domestically don’t use Google accounts.
They usually come with WeChat or some other ‘everything app’ pre-installed, that you login to with your government issued ID.