Team Telcom is calling on the FCC to cancel part of an undersea cable that links Los Angeles to Hong Kong over Chinese spying fears.
U.S. Lawmakers Ask Zoom About its Ties to China
Three lawmakers in the U.S. have asked Zoom to clarify its relationship with China after the company suspended user accounts at its request.
Unreliable Entities, Sustainability Reports – TMO Daily Observations 2020-05-18
Andrew Orr and Charlotte Henry join Kelly Guimont to discuss Apple’s inclusion on China’s “naughty” list and corporate responsibility.
White House in Talks With Intel, TSMC to Build U.S. Chip Foundries
Officials at the White House are reportedly in talks with Intel and TSMC to build semiconductor facilities in the United States.
U.S. tech companies and the government have been trying to reduce the country’s dependence on chip factories in Asia for years, underscored by national security concerns […]
In an April 28 letter obtained by the WSJ, Intel CEO Bob Swan told Defense Department that the company is willing to build a commercial foundry in partnership with the Pentagon “given the uncertainty created by the current geopolitical situation.”
The newspaper reports that TSMC has been in talks with Commerce and Defense department officials and Apple, one of the biggest clients, about building a semiconductor factory in the U.S.
Corporations have spent the last 30 or so years moving manufacturing to China in search of cheap labor. Did they not expect China to start competing with them?
‘Insomnia’ iOS Exploit Used to Target Uyghurs in China
An iOS exploit called Insomnia was used between January and March 2020 to spy on Uyghurs in China using apps like Signal and ProtonMail.
Zoom: Don’t Want to Get Routed Through Chinese Servers? Fork Over Your Cash
One of Zoom’s controversies is how it routes some of its network traffic through China’s servers. If you’re privacy conscious, you can opt out of specific data center regions starting April 18. But this is only for paying customers.
This feature gives our customers more control over their data and their interaction with our global network when using Zoom’s industry-leading video communication services.
I can’t say I agree. It’s not about making privacy a paid feature, it’s that Zoom is exploiting its own insecurity to create a paid feature. Next step: Making end-to-end encryption a paid feature, and leaving free users to fend for themselves.
Two-And-a-Half Million iPhones Shipped in China in March
As retail outlets in China reopened, Apple shipped 2.5 million iPhones in the country in March – a three-fold increase from the month before.
“Mexico is the China of the Americas”
Here’s another thing to put on your technology watch lists. Due to a combination of the economic consequences of the coronavirus and the trade war between the U.S. and China, many U.S. companies are moving their manufacturing out of China. Consulting firm Kearney publishes its Reshoring Index [PDF].
Kearney predicts companies “will be compelled to go much further in rethinking their sourcing strategies, (and) their entire supply chains.”
Amid other companies, Mexican manufacturing is one possible fork in Apple’s road, along with Vietnam. As Forbes states, the U.S. can’t compete with China on labor costs, and I bet few Western countries can. I don’t know what the cost is to manufacture in Mexico, but the country likely carries less risk than China.
Zoom’s Encryption is Linked to Chinese Servers
Researchers found that Zoom uses its own encryption scheme, sometimes using keys issued by China.
Some of the key management systems — 5 out of 73, in a Citizen Lab scan — seem to be located in China, with the rest in the United States. Interestingly, the Chinese servers are at least sometimes used for Zoom chats that have no nexus in China. The two Citizen Lab researchers, Bill Marczak and John Scott-Railton, live in the United States and Canada. During a test call between the two, the shared meeting encryption key “was sent to one of the participants over TLS from a Zoom server apparently located in Beijing,” according to the report.
I don’t have further commentary on Zoom, other than asking, “How will this end?”
Government Excludes Apple Watch From Tariffs
The U.S. Trade Representative approved Apple’s request to exclude the Apple Watch from U.S. tariffs on imported Chinese goods.
China Pulls Apps, Ebook Tips – TMO Daily Observations 2020-03-23
Andrew Orr and Bryan Chaffin join host Kelly Guimont to discuss China’s outsized App Store power, and getting free ebooks from a few sources.
Apple Bans Keyboard App Used to Bypass Chinese Censorship
On Thursday, Apple removed “Boom the Encryption Keyboard” from the App Store. People used it to bypass censorship in China.
TikTok Censors Posts by People it Deems Ugly or Poor
Chinese app TikTok told its moderators to censor posts from users deemed too ugly, poor, or disabled.
…according to internal documents obtained by The Intercept. These same documents show moderators were also told to censor political speech in TikTok livestreams, punishing those who harmed “national honor” or broadcast streams about “state organs such as police” with bans from the platform.
AAPL Shareholders Came Close to Supporting Privacy in China (at the Expense of Profits)
Apple shareholders came closer than I can recall to voting for a shareholder proposal opposed by Apple management, a proposal that called on Apple to uphold the same privacy protections in China it extolls elsewhere.
iPads, Trackpads, China, and Censorship – TMO Daily Observations 2020-02-28
This week we saw rumors of Apple releasing an iPad keyboard with a trackpad, and news that Apple will be requiring paid game developers to comply with Chinese censorship laws. Charlotte Henry and Bryan Chaffin join Dave Hamilton to sift through it all for you before the weekend. Press play and enjoy!
China Says That Plague Inc. Game is Illegal, Gets Removed From App Store
Ndemic Creations, the creator of the popular game Plague Inc. received a warning from China that the game contained illegal content.
Chinese Military Charged With Equifax Data Breach
Four Chinese military hackers have been charged with breaking into Equifax’s network and stealing the data of tens of millions of Americans.
The accused hackers exploited a software vulnerability to gain access to Equifax’s computers, obtaining log-in credentials that they used to navigate databases and review records. The indictment also details efforts the hackers took to cover their tracks, including wiping log files on a daily basis and routing traffic through dozens of servers in nearly 20 countries.
Reminder that Equifax executives did insider trading based on the breach. They are criminals.
FBI Investigates Over 1,000 Cases of Chinese IP Theft
At the China Initiative Conference, government officials from the FBI and DoJ spent four hours talking about theft of U.S. intellectual property by China.
“The threat from China is real, it’s persistent, it’s well-orchestrated, it’s well-resourced, and it’s not going away anytime soon,” John Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, opened the conference.
“This one to me really stands out as the greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Apple Stops Almost All Travel to China Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
Apple is limiting staff travel to China and has closed one of its stores in the country as the coronavirus continues to spread.
iPhone Growth in China Defies Market - Shipments Increase by 18.7 Percent in December
Chinese iPhone shipments increased by 18.7 percent in December 2019, according to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications.
