Do you trust Xi with your 'private' browsing data? Apple, Google stores still offer China-based VPNs, report says
Both Apple’s and Google’s online stores offer free virtual private network (VPN) apps owned by Chinese companies, according to researchers at the Tech Transparency Project, and they don’t make this fact readily known to people downloading the apps.
Neither company requires all app developers in their respective stores to explicitly state where they are based, so forcing only VPN-makers to do so would provoke a lot of blowback.
However, that’s a big problem for users of these VPNs, as it means the Chinese government could theoretically access communications flowing through them. Chinese law can force any China-based company to assist national intelligence agencies and share customer data with Beijing.
Related Knowledge Center: Digital privacy and data security
If you’re online, you’re generating a constant stream of information about yourself — sometimes voluntarily, sometimes unwittingly — that is assembled and used to craft your online experience. And generate wealth for data brokers. Meanwhile, designers and managers of the digital infrastructure on which the world depends are engaged in a never-ending effort to thwart attempts, by both criminal enterprises and state actors, to exploit vulnerabilities in those systems.
Signalgate | State surveillance