Ethan Tu (杜奕瑾), creator of the Professional Technology Temple (PTT) online bulletin board, on Monday warned the public against using Chinese apps and hardware, which he said could be used to collect users’ personal information without their consent.
Citing an article published on Friday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation about a series of data leaks at several Chinese firms, Tu wrote on Facebook that the people who built the compromised databases either lacked knowledge of cybersecurity or did not value it.
Chinese artificial intelligence company SenseNets Technology Ltd (中國深網視科技), which develops video-based crowd analysis and facial recognition technology, was last month found to have left its facial recognition database exposed for at least six months.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Two more databases were since found to have been breached, affecting 364 million users, Tu said.
The leaked information includes identification numbers, nationalities, telephone numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, facial recognition and location data, and chat and traffic violation records, he said, adding that people can freely download and modify the information.
“Were they exposed so that China’s national security departments can thoroughly study them?” Tu asked.
While it is difficult to make a database that incorporates private and public systems 100 percent safe, the exposed databases had zero protection and no password protection, he said.
It proves that the Chinese government has been collecting real-time information via apps such as WeChat (微信), QQ and Aliwangwang (阿里旺旺), as well as Apple Inc’s messaging platform, he said.
The information can be automatically collected by China’s state surveillance system without users’ consent, he added.
“The best way to protect yourself is to choose online platforms and hardware from trustworthy providers and partners,” Tu said.
For example, when using an Apple smartphone for the first time, avoid setting your location as China to prevent personal information from being shared with the Chinese surveillance system, he said.
People should also avoid using any apps, Internet services or hardware from Chinese providers, Tu said.
While any company could gather its customers’ personal information, in the West, companies that are found to have done so in unethical ways would be punished by the market, but Chinese companies do not face such consequences, he said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,