WHEN VIDEO APPS WORRY THE WORLD’S TOP SPIES
SAN FRANCISCO In early May, a curious new smartphone app began to rise stratospherically up the download charts. Called Zynn, it was essentially a clone of the Chinese video sharing app Tiktok, with one key difference: users could earn money for posting videos.
Zynn’s website claimed it was based in Palo Alto, California. In truth, it was the property of Kuaishou, another Chinese tech giant that competes with Tiktok’s parent company Bytedance. Sinoskeptic American politicians quickly called for an investigation.
By mid-june Zynn had been banned from both iphones and Android phones after allegations of a “pyramid scheme”. But by then it had gathered up a grab bag of personal data including — according to its privacy policy — location, financial account numbers and purchasing habits.
It was a perfect illustration of why some British and American spies, politicians and cybersecurity experts are worried about any technology sold by or run from within rival nations. It was also a good demonstration of why they will struggle to do anything about it.
This, after all, was not the first time. In 2017, Meitu, a Chinese picture editing app, spread like wildfire before most users were aware of how broadly it was collecting their data. Faceapp, a similar app based in Russia, has repeatedly gone viral despite serious privacy concerns.
Zoom, too, has faced criticism for routing foreigners’ data through China. Many Indians were worried enough about snooping from their neighbour to install an app called Remove China Apps before it was removed from Google’s app store.
There is currently little hard evidence that the Chinese government is doing anything sinister with personal information collected in this way. But critics claim that China’s spies can gain quick and secret access to any user data held by a Chinese company due to data security laws. Many people won’t lose much sleep over that, but soldiers and government workers, as well as their friends and family, might have cause to worry.
So might anyone who works with sensitive technology of the kind that China has regularly been accused of stealing. The country also has a documented history of spying on, threatening and attempting to suppress dissidents outside its borders.
The problem for China hawks in the West is that they are fighting human nature. All of us like to have fun, and most of us like to be part of a crowd. When technology offers us a way to do both at once, we don’t always think too hard about the risks, especially when an app or service seems frivolous and harmless. That was the dynamic behind Cambridge Analytica, which started with a personality quiz.
America’s own tech giants ruthlessly exploited these dynamics to build their empires, which by virtue of their location became massive global honeypots for U.S. spies. Britain also benefited hugely, thanks to its membership in the intelligence-sharing Five Eyes alliance. Today both nations are still trying to preserve this position, whether by pressuring companies to build back doors into their encrypted products or by trying to export controversial laws that shield social networks from being sued or prosecuted over users’ posts.
Yet after years in the cold, Chinese companies are starting to break through that barrier. They are just as capable of hacking human brains and exploiting human weaknesses as Western coders. An open, global internet economy is a bit like free trade: it’s all fun and games until you’re the one who’s losing.
Neither the United States nor Britain has come up with a very good answer. The British government is struggling to decisively pull the trigger on excluding Huawei from our national 5G network (which would probably be expensive). American politicians have proposed bills to prohibit use of Tiktok on government devices and even to force app stores to warn users before they download a foreign app (because hey, cookie warnings and upfront privacy notices have worked so well already!).
Some Western nations may eventually feel forced to build their own version of China’s Great Firewall, which very effectively protects Chinese tech firms from foreign competition, as well as protecting Chinese citizens from dangerous ideas. That, however, would have no bearing on what users download in the rest of the world, and might even accelerate China’s digital influence by making U.S. apps harder to use.
All this puts Silicon Valley in a difficult position. Zoom, an American company with many employees and some big Chinese shareholders in China, has come under sharp scrutiny. Google has been criticized for building a secret Chinese search engine.
Facebook, at least, has picked a side, loudly warning U.S. politicians about the danger from Chinese apps (like Tiktok, which it is so far failing to kill). But Apple is deeply split: most of its supply chain is in China, and it is simultaneously trying to protect its users from data-sucking apps and mollify the Communist Party by removing troublesome content.
In the meantime our appetite for fun will not abate, and may be stronger after coronavirus. China hawks are up against the same psychological loopholes that propelled Silicon Valley into dominance. Looking at my screen-time statistics for the last few months, I wouldn’t bet on their chances. Anyway, have you seen how funny I look with rabbit ears?
The Daily Telegraph
Some Western nations may eventually feel forced to build their own version of China’s Great Firewall, which very effectively protects Chinese tech firms from foreign competition.