The New York Times has reported that yet another popular app made by a Chinese developer has major privacy and security concerns, a development that should surprise absolutely nobody.
The app, made for Google’s Android platform, is used to control commercial drones made by the China-based company Da Jiang Innovations. DJI is the world’s largest maker of commercial drones, with hundreds of thousands of users worldwide. Cybersecurity researchers determined that the Android version of the app collects information from the users’ phones and can update itself without Google review, a violation of Google’s terms of service.
Under Chinese law, China-based tech companies cannot refuse to share data with the Chinese Communist Party. According to the New York Times, “Much of the technical data that the app collects fits with Chinese government surveillance practices, which require phones and drones to be linked to a user’s identity.” The Pentagon has banned the military’s use of DJI drones, and the Department of the Interior has phased them out of use as well.
Google has said it is looking into this report, but it wouldn’t be the first time it was caught up in an app store debacle with China. Google previously removed multiple versions of an app from its Google Play store in India that was designed to identify Chinese apps for removal. India recently banned 59 Chinese apps from the country.
American tech companies having access to your data is one thing, but companies based in China can and will be forced to hand that data over to the CCP. Apps like TikTok, which has been caught logging keystrokes and copying user’s clipboards, effectively serve as data-collection tools for a malevolent foreign power.
Apps produced by China-based companies should receive stricter scrutiny from American tech companies. TikTok has been downloaded more than 2 billion times worldwide, and there is nothing on the Google Play or Apple app stores to inform users that their data will go directly to the CCP.
Our tech companies cannot allow Chinese apps to continue to hand the user data to an enemy foreign power. They know these apps are required by law to hand over that data to the CCP, and they should be running those apps by experts to check their security and informing users of the threat those apps pose to their privacy.
