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.
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
INTERCEPTION: The 30km test ceiling shows that the CSIST is capable of producing missiles that could stop inbound missiles as they re-enter the atmosphere Recent missile tests by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST) show that Taiwan’s missiles are capable of intercepting ballistic missiles as they re-enter the atmosphere and pose a significant deterrent to Chinese missile threats, former Hsiung Feng III missile development project chief engineer Chang Cheng (張誠) said yesterday. The military-affiliated institute has been conducting missile tests, believed to be related to Project Chiang Kung (強弓) at Pingtung County’s Jiupeng Military Base, with many tests deviating from past practices of setting restriction zones at “unlimited” and instead clearly stating a 30.48km range, Chang said. “Unlimited” restrictions zones for missile tests is
PUBLIC SAFETY: The nationwide distribution campaign aims to enhance society’s overall understanding of threats and bolster defense awareness, an official said The latest edition of the National Public Safety Guide is being mailed to all citizens starting today to foster public awareness of self-defense in the event of war or natural disasters, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. “The guides will be disseminated to the public to enhance society’s overall understanding of threats and bolster defense awareness, demonstrating the government’s emphasis on people’s safety and its determination to pursue self-defense,” All-out Defense Mobilization Agency Director Shen Wei-chih (沈威志) said at the ministry’s news conference. The nationwide distribution campaign was planned according to President Lai William’s (賴清德) Sept. 20 directive, he said, adding
RSS