The National Security Bureau (NSB) of Taiwan has issued a warning about security risks associated with Chinese-developed applications such as RedNote, Weibo, TikTok, WeChat, and Baidu Cloud. The NSB highlighted concerns over excessive data collection and data transfer to China, following an evaluation conducted in collaboration with other investigative agencies.
According to the NSB, the assessment revealed significant security issues, including privacy infringements and extensive data collection by these apps. RedNote was found to violate all 15 indicators, while Weibo and TikTok breached 13 indicators each. WeChat and Baidu Cloud also exhibited concerning behavior by violating 10 and 9 indicators, respectively.
The NSB emphasized that these apps gather personal data such as facial recognition information, contact lists, and location data. Additionally, the transmission of data to servers located in China raised concerns about potential misuse by third parties.
Furthermore, the NSB highlighted that Chinese companies are required by law to provide user data for national security and intelligence purposes, posing a threat to the privacy of Taiwanese users. This warning comes in the wake of global actions against Chinese-made apps, with countries like India and Canada imposing bans due to security concerns.
In a recent development, Germany’s data protection authorities called for the removal of the Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek from app stores due to unlawful data transfers to China. The NSB advised the public to prioritize mobile device security and avoid downloading apps from China that pose cybersecurity risks to safeguard personal data privacy and business secrets.
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