Before Chinese President Xi Jinping visits President Obama, he and Chinese executives have some business in Seattle: pressing U.S. tech companies, hungry for the Chinese market, to comply with the country’s new stringent and suppressive Internet policies.
The New York Times reported last week that Chinese authorities sent a letter to some U.S. tech firms seeking a promise they would not harm China’s national security.
That might require such things as forcing users to register with their real names, storing Chinese citizens’ data locally where the government can access it, and building government “back doors” into encrypted communication products for better surveillance. China’s new national security law calls for systems that are “secure and controllable,” which industry groups told the Times in July means companies will have to hand over encryption keys or even source code to their products.
Among the big names joining Xi at Wednesday’s U.S.-China Internet Industry Forum: Apple, Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft.
The meeting comes as U.S. law enforcement officials have been pressuring companies to give them a way to access encrypted communications. The technology community has responded by pointing out that any sort of hole for law enforcement weakens the entire system to attack from outside bad actors — such as China, which has been tied to many instances of state-sponsored hacking into U.S systems.
In fact, one argument privacy advocates have repeatedly made is that back doors for law enforcement would set a dangerous precedent when countries like China want the same kind of access to pursue their own domestic political goals.
But here, potentially, the situation has been reversed, with China using its massive economic leverage to demand that sort of access right now.
Human rights groups are urging U.S. companies not to give in.
“U.S. tech firms need to put people and principles before profit, and defend Internet freedom,” William Nee, a China researcher at Amnesty International, was quoted as saying in a statement Amnesty issued Tuesday night. “They must not turn a blind eye to China’s online repression in order to gain access to the lucrative Chinese market.”
Amnesty noted China’s already poor digital rights record, which includes the jailing of Chinese activists for voicing their opinions. Ilham Tohti, an academic who founded the website Uighur Online and criticized China’s treatment of the Muslim Uighur minority, was imprisoned exactly one year before Wednesday’s meeting for “separatism,” a charge Amnesty describes as “baseless.”
“Governments across the globe are increasingly using technology to crack down on freedom of expression, censor information on human rights violations and carry out indiscriminate mass surveillance in the name of security, often in collaboration with corporations,” the group wrote. “Internet companies have a responsibility to respect international human rights in their global operations. This entails putting proactive measures in place so that serious human rights abuses can be avoided.”
Marietje Schaake, a Dutch member of the European parliament who has written about the issue, told The Intercept that European and U.S. companies should reject “mandatory back doors or weakening of encryption standards.”
“In the short term it may seem tempting to enter the Chinese market on the government’s terms,” she wrote in an email, “but in the long run being a search engine that censors, or a social network that surveils, will scare away users.”
Adam Segal, a senior fellow focusing on China for the Council on Foreign Relations, said the companies “are likely to not sign any pledge voluntarily.”
When it comes to building back doors for the Chinese government, he told The Intercept, “They are going to hold off as long as possible. … Apple can’t give a speech and talk about its commitment to privacy and then give in to China. They can’t put up with the backlash that would hit them.”
When and if the Chinese are able to convince the companies to build weaker encryption, however, Segal said he thinks U.S. law enforcement will leap on that opportunity to get the same thing.
Are they actually outsourcing the NSA?
RCL
Very odd times we are living indeed. USG has become the stasi of the world and now we even have the pot telling the kettle to be more black …
RCL
Interesting that the US government is acting exactly as is the (totalitarian, repressive) Chinese government on this issue.
I wonder what the founders of the country would have thought about encryption and government access, had they ever known of it?
Why are there no countries in the world demanding strong end-to-end encryption in all products as a prerequisite for market entry?
Eventually, all the world’s governments, controlled by oligarchs, will spy on all their peoples, even sharing our private data with each other’s elites.
Whenever sending anything via E-mail one should always, always, always fully encrypt their message and attachments and use E-mail with server operated physically in a nation that has the stongest privacy rights laws. Consider http://www.unseen.is an E-mail service operated from Iceland. Torpark is a more private and secure web browser with which one may more effectively anonymize one’s web surfing.
After reading something like http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/24/world/asia/hackers-took-fingerprints-of-5-6-million-us-workers-government-says.html?_r=0 I have to ask: why don’t we just outsource all the spying to China? I mean, they already have our data, our secrets, and have free hacking access to the information about all the spies… we don’t stand to lose much more information… so why not enjoy the benefits of cheap labor and outsource the spy agencies to them altogether?
You know what? There may have been another reason as well . . .
Or, why they picked the perfect spot for further cyber-theft!
On the previous trip of the previous Chinese president, their delegation occupied the hotel some blocks away on University, the Four Seasons/Olympic (or whatever it is presently called today).
This time around, they chose a far more strategic site, the Westin Tower, located across the street from the Westin Building (that would be line-of-sight, of course).
The Westin Building is the location of a major IXP, or Internet eXchange Point, the Internet switching center connecting Alaska, Northern Canada and this region with Chicago (the central USA) and the Southwest.
Now, among that 1,000 member delegation accompanying President Xi are names which also appear on the personnel roster of 61 Research Institute, China’s major cyber-theft operation.
This might be coincidence, of course, as there are many similar names among a population that size, but it is interesting that this occurs during their stay this time?
Recommended Reading:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1737917-investigative-report-china-theft-incorporated/
http://img.theepochtimes.com/n3/eet-content/uploads/2015/09/14/Josh-Corrections-Chinese-Spy-Network-Final-CE-SMALL-580×519.jpg
https://www.seattleix.net/
http://john-savageau.com/2009/10/12/telecom-risk-and-security-part-2-%E2%80%93-the-carrier-hotel-supernode/
https://www.nanog.org/meetings/nanog43/presentations/IXP_Peering.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuBde4Sn3f0&feature=player_embedded
Follow the money! It’s always the same no matter where you are the companies will cave in to governments because they can’t resist the cash to be gained in the businesses of any country, including the US. It’s really sad to see all the freedom we used to have being sold out for profit, by the lure of ever more money irregardless of human rights or dignity. I’m already careful of what I write because it’s just a matter of time ’till the come “knocking on my door” , like in “1984”. We will all be owned by the state and these companies will be partly to blame for all the surveillance put in place because of strong arm tactics used by governments.
cisco helped design the “great firewall” and got richer. google resisted state pressure and got booted.
http://www.wired.com/2008/05/leaked-cisco-do/
they’ll fold. the profits are simply too tempting and they know the blowback will be minimal. if most iphone users don’t know or care about the mining of hazardous materials, horrid work conditions and employee suicides why would they give a damn about this? you can always take western materialism to the bank.
‘hey Mr Gates, you can blame it on the Chinese!’ said the operative.
Just about everything being criticized about China in this article is being done in spades by the NSA/GCHQ/BND.
Even the Intercept is tainted by the US and Western constant criticism of other countries especially China about cyber issues and human rights.
Like it or not The Intercept is part of the Western press and should take caution to avoid doing the same thing the NYT does.
I can hear the howls now so put a sock in it.
I for one am weary of the Western press, instead of trying to provide understanding of the complexities of and profound cultural differences, yelling at China from great distance about their Western perceived shortcomings.
I will concede to argument that what the NSA & Western Law enforcement does violates human rights across the globe. It is not right. Not at all.
However, it’s quite another for the Chinese government to approach US companies after poaching their IP and twisting their arms to invert UN human rights conventions to compell them to continue odious mass surveillance behavior; which is rudimentary to CHINA’s repressive communist regime making enterprise compromises.
Go, be weary of the US press, becuase I have seen how China’s propagandists implant CHINA DAILY headlines that Tibet is enjoying it’s sovereignty for many years now. THIS IS NOT FOR YOU.
WHO DEVALUED THE YUAN? Now you’re in a bad patch. Our businesses should come home. You should try, as a communist regime, to try to stimulate your cannibal economy on consumerism. It might work for you. I think it’s high time for us to leave you, in my opinion. The cost of doing business with you is too high.
China is not in a position to screw up global privacy & identity conventions because they can contract our dark state in kibbutz with other strategic COMMERCIAL tents in the US. The President has to put a stop to all this and now he is in a poisiton to do so.
I hope he has the gall to put you in your place. You’re an inappropriate leader for the West.
Thanks for illustrating my point. Westerners smarmily point and accuse China of every conceivable crime against human or civil rights as if the Enlightenment is Chinese history not western.
Look, I am not trying to defend or condemn any particular Chinese policy what I am trying to point out is that historically and culturally China is very very different from the West and is deeply complex. Yelling and pointing at China from great distance by people who know and understand almost nothing about China helps no one especially if they are journalists.
If the Intercept or any other publication wants to provide coverage of China how about some Chinese voices a nation with 1.4 billion people must have a few scholars and experts within and outside the country who can provide insightful information and analysis.
The Intercept like the Guardian and all manor of Western press simply ignore anything China has to say and publish articles which are not even in the end about China but what the Western journalist or officials thinks about China – likely from a position of ignorance.
You have a point, but there’s a different lower battle here. One question is “Is my information private?” and the other is “how private is my information?” The two mean opposite things, just as if you substituted “virgin” and “wife”, but if you can’t have one you might still ask about the other. How many people do you want to have free to blackmail you, steal your secrets, or mail out child porn that is absolutely, incontrovertibly provable to have been sent by you and no one else? Oh, the U.S. and BND and all the English speaking countries and probably the French and surely the Israelis and everyone they contract with have such rights, but should we add China and Russia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia?
The frightening thing in all this is that the Chinese government is wanting what the East German Stasi would have wanted (no surprise there), but all the major Democratic governments want this too (and you can’t have democracy without privacy) – everyone is lined up against the general user / citizen and their right to privacy (its quite striking when you take a step back and look at the big picture).
I am unable to understand this one sentence’s basis in reality –
“But here, potentially, the situation has been reversed, with China using its
massive economic leverage to demand that sort of access right now.”
What “situation has been reversed?”
The “demand” is the same on both sides of the ocean.
Is it that “the situation” means that the demand is situated on the opposite
(reverse) shore of the Pacific?
The governmental lovers of access for controlling people seem to be right in
line with each other.
What has been “reversed”???
So: The position of the FBI and NSA are in concordance with that of the People’s Republic of China. Nice to know whose side our government is on.
Encryption back door law exists in China at least since around 2001. But like other laws, there is selective law enforcement.
Now every foreigner and Chinese is probably using encryption products in China, so everyone is liable to prosecution at the drop of a hat.
“…pressing U.S. tech companies, hungry for the Chinese market, to comply with the country’s new stringent and suppressive Internet policies.”
Uh excuse me but Google and Yahoo have already ratted out tens of thousands of Chinese a couple of years ago when there was dissent in China, giving the Chinese govt the ID’s of those privately criticizing the govt. Another reason not to trust Google or yahoo.
Obama transparency, who would you trust?
China vs NSA, FBI, CIA.
Thank you Ed….
China doesn’t want a back door – it wants a front door just like the NSA. In other words, the tech companies will collect everyone’s information (e.g. Windows now logs your keystrokes and sends them to Microsoft), and China will simply request access to these business records under the Third-Party Doctrine (a pdf file discussing that doctrine).
A level playing field for all.
It is reassuring to know that when it comes to spying on the citizens of the world both governments (US, China, and friends) share a common and unflinching purpose! These governments want to know us – each and every one of us – our details, our lives, our friends, our thoughts, through the front door, the back door, the side door, the window, … They want access to all of this because they want to “protect us” – they promise to keep it on their servers so that no one else can gain access to them. They want to reach out and touch us – as the old ad goes. Consider yourself touched!
Thanks for the link, Benito. Might I mention, though, that Windows only sends your information to Microsoft if you give them permission. In Windows 7 and below, at least, one can deny that permission, and change the list of startup programs to deactivate the link. Additionally, one needs to turn off the Automatic Update feature.
With the advent of instant communications such as e-mail and chat, we have become much more verbose. We are also thoughtless when it comes to revealing personal information on line, and so, from my point of view, we are largely responsible for the exploitation that is going on.
I envision a time when anyone who uses social media (Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, etc.) or communicates in plaintext will be viewed as an irresponsible fool. That will not stop companies from selling our information to each other, or our government from selling that information to others, of course.
24b4Jeff – “Might I mention, though, that Windows only sends your information to Microsoft if you give them permission. ”
I used to think that too, but that’s not the case with Windows 10 and they have backported those phone home monitoring tools to Windows 8 and 7 (not identifying them as such of course) in amongst your security updates etc. which are normally very important things to install if you’re on the web:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/01/microsoft_backports_data_slurp_to_windows_78_via_patches/
Microsoft has been shown to be a very good friend of the NSA’s (& presumably all other large governments, repressive or not) in direct conflict of their customers privacy expectations and not a company that chooses to support their customers privacy:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data
I would expect that Microsoft has been “partnering” with the Communist Chinese citizen monitoring apparatus there for more than a decade, helping to rat out (and ensure their torture and executions) of Democracy and human rights supporters in the process – its a consistent pattern of choice by Microsoft’s executives. If a tyrant came to power in the U.S. and abused the U.S. monitoring system for political gain (Nixon, Hoover, McCarthy) it would be expected Microsoft would enthusiastically assist the U.S. government is such treason (i.e. find out all the muslims in the U.S. who searched ISIS or had related files on their computers etc.).
I don’t disagree with you; since the Snowden revelations I have had auto update turned off, and am EXTREMELY selective in applying Windows updates. This I mentioned in my original post. I have also deactivated my web cam and do not allow remote access to my computer. Does that guarantee security? No.
“deactivated my web cam”
I hope you mean you put tape over the lens because “deactivating” via Settings is like “I promise not to peek.” Bill always keeps his fingers crossed.
It is not just China and the US that has access to private data. Saudi Arabia is preparing to behead a young man who was 17 at his arrest and then leave his torso crucified and left to rot. Part of their evidence was information they obtained from his blackberry, using techniques developed by NSA, FBI, CIA.
These multinational corporations are complicit in helping the police state in all the countries they sell to as a cost of doing business. After all, to a corporate board and CEO, profits must keep coming in regardless of Big Brother and human rights.
Silicon Valley finds itself economically threatened by the imperialistic/hegemonic/capitalistic ‘Great Powers’ of the USA (#1) and China (#3) into surrendering backdoor encryption technologies that would help ensure the complete control over the American proletariat.
Certainly, no fair, sound-minded entrepreneur would remotely consider trusting either nation-state bad actor with their potential profit margins and their customers’ financial security and privacy.
The best way to beat the Chinese in their own game is to tell them that we are going to henceforth enforce strict encryption on all our electronic traffic. The Chinese are flourishing by snooping on our technology and then making it their business to manufacture and sell it right back to us.
Also, they must bear their share of the global refugee crisis. Right now they are conveniently escaping their moral responsibilities and leaving it to the mercy of the treacherous Germans who were caught cheating with their polluting vehicles the other day.