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Apple and Google Still Have a Chinese VPN Problem (www.techtransparencyproject.org)

submitted 1 month ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/privacy@programming.dev

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The Apple and Google app stores continue to offer private browsing apps that are surreptitiously owned by Chinese companies, more than six weeks after they were identified in a Tech Transparency Project report. Apple and Google may also be profiting from these apps, which put Americans’ privacy and U.S. national security at risk, TTP found.

The apps are virtual private networks (VPNs), which promise to mask a user’s identity as they browse the internet. But Chinese-owned VPNs raise serious privacy and security concerns for Americans because Chinese companies can be forced to share user data with the Chinese government under the country’s national security laws. VPNs have access to particularly sensitive user data since they see all of a person’s web activity.

TTP’s April 1 report found that more than 20 of the top 100 free VPNs in the U.S. Apple App Store in 2024 showed evidence of Chinese ownership. None of these apps clearly disclosed their Chinese ties, and some obscured their origins behind layers of shell companies. Several of the apps were linked to Qihoo 360, a Chinese cybersecurity firm that has been sanctioned by the U.S. over its ties to China’s People’s Liberation Army, TTP found.

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[–] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oh no! Not my data! I only consent to western powers using my data to brainwash me, not the Chinese!

[–] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 2 points 1 month ago

Also couldn't those free VPN also be used by, you know, the other 1.5 billion Chinese people? Thinking about it this makes more sense

[–] Horse@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 month ago

i'd rather China have my personal information than a country that could actually do something with it
i don't see the PLA airdropping into my house to black bag me

[–] andybytes@programming.dev 2 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Chynah bad booooo hooooo... I trust China before I trust the Yankee cartel. When was the last time? China dropped a nuclear weapon on a population or just bombing in general. You all got your head up, your ass. Also, you are the livestock and the farmer is the American and the farmer is the capitalist. The greatest threat to national security is the possibility for change for us bottom dwellers. I pray for nukes every single day. I wake up. I say dear God, please nuke the American Empire. I embrace the end. I mean, guns are messy, but if I got vaporized inside of the blast zone, I'd be okay with. On gawd

[–] andybytes@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

Ohhhh no the spooky capitalist country of Chynah..the supposed monster we created...so so spooky...the new cold war libturds trying to get me to hate the Russians cause they are horney for libturd imperialist agression. Don't bother with nuance and minutiae just the ol "love me love me I am a liberal" the ol but we are the good guys you know that completely ignores the covert actions of the US intelligence via CIA that staged a coup that over threw the Democraticly elected president of Ukraine (2014) as the propped up fascist elements who baned leftwing parties . just ignore the million dead due to Yankee libturd imperialist aggression. Liberals are a greater threat then the right wing hogs. Stop using free VPNs period the end. Meanwhile in Yankee dum dum land https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/us-yemen-bombing-x-osint