WGXC-90.7 FM
Radio News: Apple News now not available in China
Oct 12, 2015 6:03 pm
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The New York Times reported Oct. 10 that Apple disabled its news app in China. The new app debuted in June in the U.S., with testing in England and Australia. Users find it works overseas but not in China, with instead an error message: “Can’t refresh right now. News isn’t supported in your current region.” Larry Salibra, who founded software testing service Pay4Bugs, said on Reddit last week, “They’re censoring news content that I downloaded and stored on my device purchased in the USA, before I even enter China just because my phone happens to connect to a Chinese signal floating over the border.” Salibra proved Apple isn’t using location tracking and geofencing to shut down the News App, but is basing shutdowns on the mobile network where the phone is connected. Apple also disables the Apple Maps this way in favor of a Beijing-approved map service. Salibra says the concern here is that is if Apple is using watching real-time cell network data to make changes to a device even if location services are disabled in their privacy settings.
The New York Times reported Oct. 10 that Apple disabled its news app in China. The new app debuted in June in the U.S., with testing in England and Australia. Users find it works overseas but not in China, with instead an error message: “Can’t refresh right now. News isn’t supported in your current region.” Larry Salibra, who founded software testing service Pay4Bugs, said on Reddit last week, “They’re censoring news content that I downloaded and stored on my device purchased in the USA, before I even enter China just because my phone happens to connect to a Chinese signal floating over the border.” Salibra proved Apple isn’t using location tracking and geofencing to shut down the News App, but is basing shutdowns on the mobile network where the phone is connected. Apple also disables the Apple Maps this way in favor of a Beijing-approved map service. Salibra says the concern here is that is if Apple is using watching real-time cell network data to make changes to a device even if location services are disabled in their privacy settings.