Apple has taken new action against app developers in order to comply with new cybersecurity laws in China. According to SlashGear, the tech giant has started warning iOS developers that any apps using Apple’s CallKit will be pulled from the Chinese App Store unless they remove the framework’s integration.
This comes after China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has started to enforce regulations that see CallKit as a way to help bypass censorship and surveillance. In order for developers to make their application available on the China App Store, they must remove CallKit integrations altogether. Or lemove the apps from the store completely.
CallKit lets you integrate your calling services with other call-related apps on the system. It provides the calling interface, and developers handle the back-end communication with their VoIP service. For incoming and outgoing calls, CallKit displays the same interfaces as the Phone app, giving apps a more native look and feel.
Also, it responds appropriately to system-level behaviors such as Do Not Disturb. In addition to handling calls, you can provide a Call Directory app extension to provide caller ID information and a list of blocked numbers associated with your service.
In March, Amnesty International — an organization that “works to protect women, men and children wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied” — launched a new social media campaign targeting Apple over its “betrayal” of millions of Chinese iCloud users by “recklessly” making their personal data vulnerable to the arbitrary scrutiny of the Chinese government.
In February, Apple transferred the operation of its iCloud service for Chinese users to Guizhou-Cloud Big Data. The move affects any photos, documents, contacts, messages and other user data and content that Chinese users store on Apple’s cloud-based servers.
In response, Amnesty’s online campaign urges consumers to tell Apple CEO Tim Cook to reject double standards when it comes to privacy for Chinese customers, whose personal data is now at risk of ending up in the hands of the government.
In a nod to Apple’s classic “1984” TV commercial, the campaign takes an Orwellian theme with the line “All Apple users are equal but some are less equal than other.”
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