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China arrests Apple suppliers for selling iPhone users’ data

Chinese authorities have unearthed a massive operation run by Apple suppliers selling private data of the iPhone users worth 50 million Yuan to the Chinese black money vendors

If you thought that buying an iPhone would solve all your data security woes, then you are absolutely wrong as there is more than one way scammers can steal all your private data. In a piece of news that comes as a shock, Chinese authorities have unearthed a massive underground operation run by Apple suppliers selling the private data of the iPhone users to the Chinese black money vendors. The scammers include dozens of employees of Apple suppliers and the companies that Apple outsources work to.

The Chinese officials have detained 22 people on the suspicions of infringing the privacy of Apple users and obtaining their personal information illegally, 20 of which are Apple’s suppliers. The stolen data includes names, phone numbers and Apple IDs of the Apple customers.

Reports suggest that the data has been allegedly sold between 10 Yuan (Rs 94) and 180 Yuan (Rs 1,700) and it is worth 50 million Yuan (Rs 47,25,55,605). However, at this point, it remains unclear if the stolen data belongs to the Apple users within China or iPhone users across the globe.

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It took Chinese police from four provinces including– Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian, nearly four months investigate and build a case to apprehend the suspects. They began making making their arrests in May this. The Chinese officials have seized smartphones, computers and credit cards from the detained employees during their arrests.

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However, this is not for the first time that the data of Apple users has been stolen in China. The company has had a tough time dealing with the scammers who steal the information to sell it to the vendors in the Chinese black market.

(Source: The Verge, Apple Insider)

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