Government agencies have been banned from using the Chinese navigation app AMap (高德地圖) due to national information security concerns, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday.
Concerns were raised after it was found that the app displayed countdown timers for some traffic lights, prompting fears of cybersecurity risks.
Some user data from AMap could be transmitted back to servers in China, Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-jin (林宜敬) told the Legislative Yuan on Wednesday.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The ministry is reviewing the situation with the Mainland Affairs Council and national security agencies, he added.
Guidelines restricting the use of products deemed harmful to national information security have been in place since 2019, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference following a Cabinet meeting yesterday.
Software widely considered to pose cybersecurity risks is prohibited in government agencies, while the public is advised to remain vigilant and avoid downloading such apps, she added.
The National Institute of Cyber Security is conducting cybersecurity testing on AMap, Administration for Cybersecurity Director-General Tsai Fu-lung (蔡福隆) said.
The app’s map data are obtained through cooperation with a Dutch firm, rather than being collected independently in Taiwan, he said.
The traffic light countdown feature is not linked to Taiwan’s traffic signal systems, but is instead calculated using aggregated user behavior, such as when users stop and start at intersections, he added.
Under Chinese regulations, the government has the authority to access corporate data, and citizens are obligated to cooperate, Tsai said, adding that data collected by AMap, including locations and movement trajectories, could be transmitted back to servers in China and accessed by Chinese authorities.
Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) told reporters that the military would follow the ministry’s lead in banning the use of AMap.
Asked whether privately owned mobile phones would also be subject to regulation, he said that the ministry would adhere to the ban and ensure that all service members comply.
Regarding the app’s ability to identify military installations — even those that have been stripped of identifying information or blurred — by using nearby landmarks, Koo said that Chinese satellites pass over Taiwan on a daily basis.
In the event of a conflict, fixed positions would never be entirely secure, he said, adding that the military would identify suitable concealed operational positions in terms of tactical planning.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday denied that it had given data recorded on the Transport Data Exchange Service Platform (運輸資料流通服務平臺) to AMap, saying the platform does not provide real-time traffic signal countdown data, nor does it offer an interface to access traffic light information.
Traffic signal control is highly specialized and operates within a closed system, it said, adding that the data are used exclusively by local governments for traffic management and transmitted via the government’s secure network.
AMap’s developer, AutoNavi (高德軟件), is headquartered in Beijing and has been wholly owned by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) since 2014.
In China, digital mapping is considered a highly sensitive sector requiring a government-issued surveying and mapping license, as such data involve national security, people familiar with the matter said, adding that AMap operates under strict government oversight.
Such apps could collect long-term data on users’ movements, which could be used to analyze traffic nodes, population flows and activity patterns, Tunghai University Center for Mainland China and Regional Development Research deputy director Hung Pu-chao (洪浦釗) said.
If such data are transmitted to China, Taiwan would have no control over who accesses them or how they are used, and they could potentially be leveraged for further analysis, he added.
Additional reporting by Shelley Shan, Huang Tzu-yang and Fang Wei-li
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