The Taiwanese government has issued a data security warning against Chinese-made apps. The apps allegedly harvest data from users and send them back to home servers in China. The announcement comes after the Taiwan National Security Bureau (NSB) conducted an analysis of five popular Chinese apps including Rednote, Weibo, TikTok, WeChat, and Baidu Cloud.
The NSB’s rather seriously worded announcement claims that all five apps showed “serious violations across multiple inspection indicators.” The Rednote app failed to meet all 15 security inspection standards while Weibo and TikTok failed 13, WeChat failed 10, and Baidu Cloud failed nine. Overall, all five apps were found to have “security issues of excessively collecting personal data and abusing system permissions.”
The apps were also checked for data transmission back to China and all five were found to send packets back to Chinese servers. Since China’s laws force companies to hand over any user data to authorities for reasons of “national security, public security, and intelligence,” this practice can pose a threat to the privacy of Taiwanese users.
China’s data laws are famously dystopian, and multiple countries including India, the US, and the EU have either banned or imposed substantial fines on Chinese-made apps before for stealing user data and sending it back to China. Even hardware companies like HikVision have been banned by Canada.
NSB’s report doesn’t outright ban Chinese apps in the country, including the five apps it tested. The general public is strongly advised to “remain vigilant regarding mobile device security and avoid downloading China-made apps that pose cybersecurity risks, so as to protect personal data privacy and corporate business secrets.”
It is a strong word of caution to the general public. If past trends are to be considered, this could also be the first step in rolling out a blanket ban on apps the government might deem too invasive.
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