The National Security Bureau (NSB) yesterday urged Taiwanese to exercise caution when using Chinese social media mobile applications due to potential privacy and national security issues, following an inspection of apps such as Douyin (抖音, the Chinese version of TikTok) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書, known as RedNote in English).
The inspections by Taiwan’s top intelligence agency of five apps, which also included the Chinese social media platforms Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and WeChat (微信), as well as Baidu Cloud (百度雲), found serious contraventions of users’ communications security across several indicators, the bureau said in a statement.
The inspections, conducted jointly with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau and the Criminal Investigation Bureau, covered 15 indicators in five categories: personal data collection, excess usage of permissions, data transmission and sharing, system information extraction and access to biometric data.
Photo: Reuters
The review revealed that all five apps failed to meet many of the indicators, with Xiaohongshu, the Chinese equivalent of Facebook, failing to meet all 15 of them, the NSB said.
Sina Weibo and Douyin did not meet 13 of the 15 indicators, while WeChat failed 10 and Baidu Cloud nine.
“These findings suggest that the China-made apps present cybersecurity risks far beyond the reasonable expectations for data-collection requirements taken by ordinary apps,” the bureau said in the English-language statement.
All of the apps had security issues related to excessive collection of personal data and abuse of system permissions, with contraventions including unauthorized access to screenshots, clipboard content, contact lists and location data, as well as inadequate protection of personal information rights.
All five apps collected users’ application lists and device parameters (in the system information extraction category), and four of them collected facial recognition data, which the NSB said might be deliberately harvested and stored by those apps.
The apps were also found to send packets back to servers in China, raising serious concerns over the potential misuse of personal data by third parties, it said.
Under China’s Cybersecurity Law and National Intelligence Law, Chinese companies are obligated to turn over user data to authorities when it involves national security, public security or intelligence, the NSB said.
Such a practice would significantly breach the privacy of Taiwanese users and could support data collection by Chinese agencies, it said.
People must “remain vigilant regarding mobile device security and avoid downloading China-made apps that pose cybersecurity risks, to protect personal data privacy and corporate business secrets,” it said.
Since 2019, Taiwan has banned TikTok, Douyin (抖音, the Chinese version of TikTok) and Xiaohongshu from government devices and official premises over national security concerns.
However, there is no ban on the private use of the apps.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS