Apple began notifying Chinese iCloud customers of the forthcoming handoff of its cloud service to the Chinese company Guizhou on the Cloud Big Data (GCBD), which will take over local operations starting February 28. However, TechCrunch reported that some non-Chinese iCloud accounts have been notified of this change. Some users with US-based billing addresses and connections to the US App Store received the notification email stating the physical location of their iCloud data will change come February.

According to Apple's help page on the issue, your iCloud's country or region setting dictates whether or not your account will be part of the migration.

The operation of iCloud services associated with Apple IDs that have China in their country or region setting will be subject to this transition. You will be notified of this transition via email and notifications on your devices. You don't need to take any further action and can keep using iCloud in China. After February 28, 2018, you will need to agree to the terms and conditions of iCloud operated by GCBD to keep using iCloud in China.

Users should update their iCloud location settings if they don't reside in China any more to avoid being swept up in the data migration. TechCrunch's report also claims some accounts registered overseas (not in China) are part of the migration, but it's unclear if that means these accounts were simply notified of the migration or if they will certainly be part of the impending migration. Ars has reached out to Apple for clarification.

Currently, Chinese users who do not want their iCloud data to be operated by GCBD only have the option to deactivate their accounts before the handoff occurs. Ars also asked Apple if Chinese customers have the option to simply opt out of the new GCBD partnership, but that doesn't seem likely. China's government has become even more strict about controlling and monitoring the information its citizens have access to, and storing iCloud data locally makes it easier for the government to keep tabs on that data.

Apple originally announced the operations transfer last year but only recently announced when the handoff would begin. The company opened a new data center in Guizhou last year, and that's where the data from Chinese iCloud accounts will live.

The partnership comes after much back and forth between Apple and China's government surrounding its products and services. Last year, Apple removed VPN services from its App Store in China due to new regulations that require government approval of all such services in the country. VPNs allow Chinese citizens unfettered access to the Internet, bypassing China's Great Firewall.