Experts Raise Alarm About China’s App Data Aggregation Potential

WASHINGTON, September 2, 2021 – Social media app TikTok’s rise as one of the world’s top downloaded software is concerning experts who say the aggregate data collected across a number of Chinese-made apps will allow the Communist government to get ahead of any federal action to stem the data flow.

In June, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that revoked a Trump direction that sought to ban TikTok and replaced it with criteria for the Commerce Department to evaluate the risks of said apps connected to foreign adversaries. The Trump administration even pressured TikTok to sell its U.S. business, but that never materialized.

On a webinar hosted by the Federalist Society on Thursday, panelists said the U.S. government may already be behind on the race to contain data collection and prevent it from getting into Chinese hands, who are creating advanced artificial intelligence using the data.

Margaret Peterlin, a lawyer, former Commerce Department aide and professor at the school of public service at Texas A&M University, said her concern with Biden’s executive order is whether it’s “strategically responsive” to what the Chinese government intends to do with all these sources of data – WeChat, TikTok, AliExpress, and its massive influence in telecommunications with Huawei and ZTE.

She noted that the Communist government has been very clear about its direction – that it wants to dominate and develop its data aggregation prowess to develop advanced artificial technologies. She illustrated this by using the example of how government uses advanced identification technologies and surveillance to monitor the Uyghur minority.

Peterlin also raised the issue of Chinese telecommunications companies like Huawei and ZTE, which have been the subject of restrictions from the Biden administration and the Federal Communications Commission in recent months. But she noted that Huawei is still in involved with regional carriers in the United States.

The FCC has addressed this concern by offering to compensate carriers to “rip and replace” that risky equipment. (Part of Huawei’s attraction is it’s relative low cost compared to its European rivals, for example.)

She noted that 5G “isn’t just another G” because there are many more connection and data points. Due to the promised lower latency, critical infrastructure like power grids and dams and even medical devices, can be controlled over the next-generation networks. Peterlin said these points of connection cannot be something the Chinese can get access to.

For Jamil Jaffer, founder and executive director of the National Security Institute, his concern is the pace at which the Chinese government is moving. “I worry that it’s very late in the process to be getting to this point, and they’re well ahead of us,” he said, speaking on China’s growing influence in the technology space.

Jennifer Hay, senior director for national security programs at DataRobot, a company that develops AI software, said Biden’s executive order should be able to expand to other platforms and empower the Commerce Department to look into what is going on behind the scenes on these applications.

She said the government needs to be able to make educated decisions about who’s using Americans’ data and what that data is being used for.

Hay even suggested that Congress step in and draft legislation on this kind of data collection, but Jaffer disagreed on the grounds that not only would a slow-moving government not be able to keep up with the rapid movement of technology, but legislation may impede business. He said this type of work is best left to the private sector to figure out.