Taipei, July 2, 2025: Taiwan’s National Security Bureau (NSB) has warned its citizens about the significant cybersecurity risks posed by Chinese mobile applications, advising them to exercise extreme caution when using popular platforms like TikTok, WeChat, and RedNote. The warning follows an evaluation revealing widespread breaches of users’ communication security, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported.
In a joint inspection with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) and the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB), Taiwan’s primary intelligence agency reviewed five Chinese apps — RedNote, TikTok, Weibo, WeChat, and Baidu Cloud — across 15 indicators spanning data collection, permission misuse, data sharing, system information extraction, and biometric data access.
The NSB found alarming violations:
- RedNote failed all 15 security indicators.
- Weibo and TikTok violated 13 of 15 criteria.
- WeChat breached 10 indicators.
- Baidu Cloud failed nine criteria.
“These results indicate that China-made apps pose cybersecurity risks exceeding reasonable expectations for data collection practices typically followed by ordinary applications,” the NSB stated in its release.
Violations included unauthorized access to sensitive data like screenshots, clipboard content, contacts, location data, and collection of device details. Alarmingly, four apps harvested facial recognition data, suggesting deliberate data gathering efforts, the NSB noted.
Moreover, the NSB’s analysis revealed data transmissions to servers in China, raising serious concerns about potential misuse by Chinese authorities, especially given China’s Cybersecurity and National Intelligence Laws, which mandate that companies share user data with the government for national security and intelligence purposes.
The NSB emphasized that such data access could endanger Taiwanese citizens’ privacy and corporate secrets.
“We urge the public to stay alert regarding mobile device security and refrain from downloading Chinese-made applications that pose cybersecurity threats,” the agency warned.
Since 2019, Taiwan has already banned TikTok, Douyin, and RedNote on government devices over similar national security concerns.