- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
www.techtransparencyproject.org
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31957116
Millions of Americans have downloaded apps that secretly route their internet traffic through Chinese companies, according to an investigation by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), including several that were recently owned by a sanctioned firm with links to China’s military.
TTP’s investigation found that one in five of the top 100 free virtual private networks in the U.S. App Store during 2024 were surreptitiously owned by Chinese companies, which are obliged to hand over their users’ browsing data to the Chinese government under the country’s national security laws. Several of the apps traced back to Qihoo 360, a firm declared by the Defense Department to be a “Chinese Military Company." Qihoo did not respond to questions about its app-related holdings.
[…]
VPNs allow users to mask the IP address that can identify them, and, in theory, keep their internet browsing private. For that reason, they have been used by people around the world to sidestep government censorship or surveillance, or because they believe it will improve their online security. In the U.S., kids often download free VPNs to play games or access social media during school hours.
However, VPNs can themselves pose serious risks because the companies that provide them can read all the internet traffic routed through them. That risk is compounded in the case of Chinese apps, given China’s strict laws that can force companies in that country to secretly share access to their users’ data with the government.
[…]
The VPN apps identified by TTP have been downloaded more than 70 million times from U.S. app stores, according to data from AppMagic, a mobile apps market intelligence firm.
[…]
The findings raise questions about Apple’s carefully cultivated reputation for protecting user privacy. The company has repeatedly sought to fend off antitrust legislation designed to loosen its control of the App Store by arguing such efforts could compromise user privacy and security. But TTP’s investigation suggests that Apple is not taking adequate steps to determine who owns the apps it offers its users and what they do with the data they collect. More than a dozen of the Chinese VPNs were also available in Apple’s App Store in France in late February, showing that the issue extends to other Western markets.
[…]
Qihoo is just a typical tech company with a “security” focus. It having a VPN is like Norton having a VPN - like Norton VPN.
Using a shell company is likely just a way to avoid sanctions.
A Chinese app talking to Chinese servers is no more alarming than a Swedish app talking to Swedish servers or an American app talking to American servers. Imagine writing a breathless “report” about how searching the App Store phones home to the United States. You know, to search for and download apps.
So basically the Tech Transparency Project is just doing some nationalist orientalism.
From their website: “TTP is a research initiative of Campaign for Accountability (CfA), a 501©(3) nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog organization that uses research, litigation, and aggressive communications to expose misconduct and malfeasance in public life.”
Their director: “Katie Paul, TTP’s Director, specializes in tracking criminal activity on online platforms such as Facebook. She also serves as co-director of the Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research (ATHAR) Project and a founding member of the Alliance to Counter Crime Online (ACCO).”
They are somewhat opaque about their funding. They claim to not accept corporate funding but every funder they list is just a middleman NGO for corporate/billionaire funding.
So, a typical NGO run by a cop.
Tech companies are generally terrible and tied to financialized nonsense, but there is nothing out of the ordinary here. The outrage is premised entirely on xenophobia.
A data sucking capitalist corporation from an imperialist power, all of which you hate because you aren’t an orientalist hypocrite, I presume?