By 2019, Taiwan had already banned the use of Tiktok, his Chinese version (Douyin) and Rednot on governmental devices and official facilities for national security reasons. However, the general public continues to use these applications without legal restrictions
Taiwan’s National Security Office warned Wednesday with the risks of cybersecurity associated with the use of Tiktok and four other applications developed in China, due to excessive data collection and violations of users’ privacy.
In a statement, the body indicated that it made an inspection to five applications – RedNote, Weibo, Tiktok, Wechat and Baidu Cloud – based on 15 indicators grouped into five categories: personal data collection, excessive use of permissions, transmission and sharing of data, system information and access to biometric data.
According to the Taiwan National Security Office, the five applications analyzed presented “serious violations on multiple indicators,” noting the case of Rednote, Chinese Facebook equivalent, which did not meet any of the 15 criteria evaluated.
The Weibo application and the Tiktok social network violated 13 indicators each, while WeChat failed at 10 and Baidu Cloud in nine, said the cabinet, stressing that these applications “represent risks of cybersecurity far higher than that would be reasonably expected in conventional applications.”
The body also recalled that, according to Chinese legislation, technological companies in the country are required to deliver data from users to the authorities responsible for national security, public security and intelligence, which constitutes a “serious threat to the privacy of Taiwanese users.”
By 2019, Taiwan had already banned the use of Tiktok, his Chinese version (Douyin) and Rednot on governmental devices and official facilities for national security reasons. However, the general public continues to use these applications without legal restrictions.
Taiwan’s National Security Office has recommended today “vehemently” to the population to keep a vigilant posture about the safety of their mobile devices and avoid unloading Chinese applications that may pose risks of cybersecurity in order to protect both personal privacy and sensitive commercial information.
