Craig Federighi seems confident that Apple's new data privacy feature is even coming to iPhone users in China.
In an interview with Joanna Stern from the Wall Street Journal, Craig Federighi, Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, spoke about Advanced Data Protection, the company's upcoming data privacy feature that will bring end-to-end encryption to iCloud.
The feature, announced earlier today, will allow users to opt-in to fully encrypt their iCloud data, which has implications in countries and law enforcement that may push back against such options.
Asked about a country like China, known for its pushback against user privacy, Federighi said that the company is planning to launch the feature there as well, stating, "we believe so. We want to roll out across the world." When asked how the Chinese government feels about this, Federighi said, "they have not told me," with a grin.
Federighi touched on law enforcement as well
Stern also asked if Apple thought about the potential impacts on law enforcement, who had also pushed for more access to this kind of data to assist in investigations when it was building out Advanced Data Protection.
Federighi responded by saying, "we view that we really have the same mission at heart: to keep people safe. Ultimately, keeping customers' data safe has big implications on our safety more broadly." He specifically pointed to users such as political leaders or other government officials who may need this advanced level of data privacy to protect "particular secrets or access to systems."
Advanced Data Protection will be rolling out to users in the United States by the end of the year and globally throughout 2023. According to Federighi, China is included when the company says "globally."
You can watch the full interview between Stern and Federighi below:
