Taipei [Taiwan] July 2 : The National Security Bureau (NSB) has advised Taiwanese citizens to exercise caution when using Chinese mobile applications due to possible security threats following a recent evaluation of five such apps, including RedNote and TikTok, as reported by Central News Agency (CNA).
The inspections carried out by Taiwan's primary intelligence agency on five Chinese social media platforms, including Weibo, WeChat, and Baidu Cloud, revealed significant breaches of users' communication security across various criteria, according to a statement from the NSB on Wednesday.
The evaluations, conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) and the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB), examined 15 indicators across five categories: collection of personal data, excessive permissions usage, data transmission and sharing, system information extraction, and access to biometric information.
All five applications displayed multiple violations across numerous indicators, with RedNote, the Chinese equivalent of Facebook, not meeting any of the 15 indicators, according to the NSB. Weibo and TikTok violated 13 of the 15 criteria, while WeChat violated 10, and Baidu Cloud violated nine.
"These results indicate that the China-made apps pose cybersecurity risks that exceed reasonable expectations for data-collection practices typically adhered to by ordinary applications," the NSB stated in its English-language release, as reported by Central News Agency (CNA).
The five China-made applications exhibited security issues related to the excessive collection of personal information and misuse of system permissions, with violations including unauthorised access to screenshots, clipboard content, contact lists, and location data, along with insufficient protection of personal information rights.
All five applications gathered application lists and device specifications from users (under the system information extraction category), and four of them collected facial recognition data, which the NSB suggested could be intentionally harvested and stored by these apps, as reported by CNA.
Furthermore, it was discovered that the five applications transmitted data packets back to servers situated in China, raising significant concerns regarding the potential misuse of personal information by third parties.
The NSB noted that under China's Cybersecurity Law and National Intelligence Law, Chinese companies are required to relinquish user data to authorities when it pertains to national security, public safety, and intelligence matters. Such actions would greatly compromise the privacy of Taiwanese individuals and could facilitate data collection by certain Chinese agencies, according to the NSB.
In light of the latest findings, the NSB urged the public to "stay alert regarding mobile device security and refrain from downloading Chinese-made applications that pose cybersecurity threats to safeguard personal data privacy and corporate business secrets."
Since 2019, Taiwan has prohibited the use of TikTok, Douyin (the Chinese version), and RedNote on government devices and in official locations due to national security concerns.
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