“There’s a very simple piece of code — a driver — that allows the phone to recognize the charger and say, ‘This is the right charger,’ and then use it,” said veteran law enforcement and cybersecurity expert Keith Hanson, CEO of QUX Technologies. “So theoretically, any device from China can have the same program. It can install drivers that do whatever it’s programmed to do. They warn that this program will be written by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and designed to serve Beijing’s interests—not you or the American government.
Hanson went on to warn that hardware or software from China could potentially “install small pieces of code that … This means China could track your browsing history, monitor your online activities, or even profile your movements to feed its AI systems. Worse, CCP it can activate your camera, listen to your conversations, log your keystrokes, or, with the advent of the Internet of Things, gain control of devices ranging from your coffee machine to your car.
During his first term, President Donald Trump tried to ban TikTok, citing national security concerns over its ownership by Chinese company ByteDance. The government has confirmed that TikTok can collect data on US citizens and potentially share it with the Chinese government. In August 2020, Trump signed an executive order targeting TikTok and another Chinese-owned app, WeChat, which required ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US operations to an American company. While ByteDance negotiated a potential sale to Oracle and Walmart, the deal never materialized.
Legal challenges prevented the ban from being implemented, with courts questioning the administration’s authority and raising First Amendment concerns. When President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he paused and ultimately rescinded Trump’s order, instead issuing a new executive order in June 2021.
Hanson said the TikTok ban was justified and necessary, given the threat posed by Chinese apps and hardware to the United States. He said “the majority of our electronic devices are made in China. And then you also have now a lot of the software that is loaded on these electronic devices in China. And the threat is that “China has the security keys for the majority of these electronic devices, and many of these programs and other- others may have the key.”
The key in this case is like the key to your house—you wouldn’t hand it over randomly, especially not to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). However, when it comes to technology, that’s exactly what happens. Terms of service agreements are often long and written in legalese, so most people don’t read them. You just click “OK” and start using the app or program.
However, these agreements often include language that allows your user data—and sometimes access keys—to be shared with third parties. This information is then fed into the AI system, providing “an ever-refreshing pool of data that will feed the AI’s learning,” explained Hanson. “It involves a comparative analysis of self-learning and the development of human behavior analysis, where AI becomes very good at predicting human behavior and understanding human psychology.”
When asked whether China uses data or monitors the products and programs we buy and use, Hanson drew comparisons to China’s real-world surveillance. He explained that China is the largest and most advanced surveillance country in the world. “They’re monitoring everything else. Why don’t you believe that porte, phone, or whatever they’re monitoring?” Today’s China is full of cameras equipped with facial recognition technology, tracking its citizens and anyone within its borders.
Hanson argued that if China can monitor its people to such an extreme degree, it is logical that it would also monitor America – China’s biggest rival – through hardware and software. Seen in this context, Trump’s TikTok ban seems rational, and stricter bans should be a priority in his second term.
