Report: Russia may ban Apple iPads and iPhones from January 1st, 2015

According to a report on a Russian website published yesterday, Russia may stop retailers from selling Apple products such as the iPads and iPhones from 1st January, 2015. This ban includes the latest devices - the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus as well as the iPad Air 2. Just yesterday there were reports about Steve Jobs’ memorial in Russian city of St Petersburg  **being taken down** after CEO Tim Cook came out as gay. The ban on Apple devices according to the report has nothing to do with Cook’s statement. The real reason behind the supposed ban on sale of Apple devices is the iCloud storage service. As you may be knowing, the user data that is saved on the iCloud is not stored on local data servers. The iCloud servers are based out of the US, and there’s no iCloud server in Russia. This has the Russian authorities concerned. It also pertains to a law recently passed in the country which stated that all online services, which store user data, must have their physical servers located within Russia. Since iCloud servers are located in the US, the iOS devices which connect to the iCloud services will face the ban on new year’s day. As the law states ‘online services’, that should logically include services such as Facebook and Twitter as well. While there is no directive out on these services, if they do not have a data server within Russia, they may also likely meet the same fate as Apple devices. The users who already own Apple devices and use iCloud service, will most likely be subjected to an ISP-level ban which would not allow access to iCloud servers or they may have to undergo persistent scrutiny by Russian authorities. Apple hasn’t given any update as to whether it plans to negotiate or set up server farms on Russian soil. While that would seem logical if Apple wants to continue selling its products and provide users with iCloud service in Russia, implementation needs to be thought out. It is not just a case about fulfilling Russia’s demands - it may cause many other countries to come up with similar laws as well. Setting up server farms in every country of operation (and that too just for users within that country) seems highly uneconomical. We can only wait and watch how this drama plays out and whether Russia will eventually go ahead with implementing the ban. It may be recalled that just recently, China had requested its government agencies **against purchasing Apple products** due to security concerns. Couple of years ago, the Government of India too had **requested Facebook, Twitter and Google to setup local servers** if they would not comply with the government to curb objectionable content. BlackBerry as well all know has already **setup its data server in India** . to help Indian authorities monitor the messages going through the BBM service.