Christmas Gifts Made In Communist China Can Steal Users’ Data

As Christmas approaches, high quality and low-cost gifts made in Communist China might become people’s first choice due to the continued sluggish economy. However, Aynne Kokas, associate professor of media studies at the University of Virginia, warned that the consumers are risking the theft of personal data for purchasing products manufactured in China.

 In terms of Communist China’s law, the Beijing authorities require access to user information from domestic and foreign companies with operations in China. Also, CCP can obtain user data from any company in the name of national security. Many manufacturers even store these data on servers run by CCP. UBtech, a robot maker in Communist China, is popular with U.S. users, and its funds mainly from CCP-linked companies Tencent and Haier. Once connected to the Internet, UBtech’s robots can start training algorithms, collecting interaction data and other functions. If connected to the smartphone, the robot will begin data transmission. Even if the information is stored in the US, Beijing authorities could have access to user data if the users agreed to the terms of service. Dajiang Innovations, the most popular drone brand worldwide, is a company based in Communist China. Although Dajiang is using Amazon Storage Service, it would succumb to pressure once Beijing required the company to share user information. Given there are only a few laws and regulations govern how user data could be transferred, Prof. Kokas recommends that users to send requests to legislators to improve data security legislation in the US.