US Lawmakers Want Google To Reconsider Links To China's Huawei (reuters.com) 89
Some U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have asked Google on Wednesday to reconsider its work with Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei, citing security concerns. Reuters reports: In a letter to Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai, the lawmakers said Google recently decided not to renew "Project Maven," an artificial intelligence research partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense. "While we regret that Google did not want to continue a long and fruitful tradition of collaboration between the military and technology companies, we are even more disappointed that Google apparently is more willing to support the Chinese Communist Party than the U.S. military," they wrote. The letter was signed by Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio, Republican Representatives Michael Conaway and Liz Cheney, and Democratic Representative Dutch Ruppersberger.
"Like many U.S. companies, we have agreements with dozens of OEMs (manufacturers) around the world, including Huawei. We do not provide special access to Google user data as part of these agreement, and our agreements include privacy and security protections for use data," she said in an emailed statement.
"Like many U.S. companies, we have agreements with dozens of OEMs (manufacturers) around the world, including Huawei. We do not provide special access to Google user data as part of these agreement, and our agreements include privacy and security protections for use data," she said in an emailed statement.
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It's a long winded way of saying "no, fuck off."
Bullying (Score:5, Informative)
Did they not mentin ZTE? (Score:3, Informative)
Strange they didn't mention the other big Chinese OEM with government ties.... ZTE, the one that broke Iran and North Korean sanctions.
"@realDonaldTrump
President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!
8:01 AM - 13 May 2018 "
Some deal was done, Trump let them off, then there was some internal arguments, then that became a fine instead of $1 b
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There is talk in congress about this very thing. You think it needs to be brought up each time?
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I view that as full Bullying from the gov.
Really? I view it as taking security seriously enough to actually say something.
I suppose you don't fully grasp the threat of backdoored mobile computers.
Re:Bullying (Score:5, Interesting)
Cite then, chapter and verse, where Huawei has a product that contains code that benefits the Chinese government in a security risk scenario.
No one has. It's bullshit until they do. This is Cisco/Juniper bribery/legislative influence until someone points to actual code that is a security risk or compromise.
Are they backdoor'd? Are their routers loaded with malware? No one can point to a smoking gun. This is about economics, not security, until they can cite actual security problems. This is the same group of legislative nitwits that are slowly killing the ACA, twiddling their thumbs while children are forcibly separated from their parents at borders, who can't decide on a budget, but who are happy to pass massive budget if the word "military" is involved, spend billions on planes that don't fly, and otherwise don't have anything like consumerism in mind.
The Android operating system is a recipe for making Google plentiful amounts of money, with security a nascent side-thought. Google Play is rife with malware, crypto-currency laden apps, and worse.
So when you say, "I suppose you don't fully grasp the threat of backdoored mobile computers", I have to laugh loudly.
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Cite then, chapter and verse, where Huawei has a product that contains code that benefits the Chinese government in a security risk scenario.
Pre-installed Backdoor On 700 Million Android Phones Sending Users' Data To China [thehackernews.com]
"Moreover, it is worth noting that AdUps provides its software to much larger handset manufacturers, such as ZTE and Huawei, which sell their Android phones worldwide, across over 150 countries and regions."
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From the article you cite:
"Ms. Lim said the software was intended to help the Chinese client identify junk text messages and calls. She did not identify the company that requested it and said she did not know how many phones were affected. She said phone companies, not Adups, were responsible for disclosing privacy policies to users. âoeAdups was just there to provide functionality that the phone distributor asked for,â she said.
Android phones run software that is developed by Google and distribut
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Don't be a bullshit artist. You have no idea, and are simply parroting your weenie fears.
Do Chinese orgs become involved in IP theft and espionage? Yes, it's a proven fact. What you didn't conveniently get around to is the question I asked: cite chapter and verse.
You can't, because there isn't any. This is all about three letter agencies miffed that they can't impregnate your smartphone with their own tracking ware, or your router, etc.
Read the info rather than parroting the paranoia memes. This is about re
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So, you really believe the Goog's suggestion that their only risk to national security is in user data? There can't be any risk in shipping millions of pounds of network hardware and putting black box hardware with SDRs every few hundred meters in big cities and every kilometer in less dense areas. Nope, no risk in Google collaborating with them, the user data is safe and secure. And that's exactly one risk vector.
Sour Grapes (Score:5, Insightful)
Its some pissed military contract manager who has a bad case of sour grapes because he cannot not fulfill his 'development' project as it was all going to be from google..
'Boo Hoo, I'm going to throw all my toys out of the cot and scream until I get what I want' is how this reads.
Pathetic really.
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Playing the patriotism card ... (Score:3)
... is the "Think of the children," model.
Especially damning is the "Communist," reference.
To make anything great again you gotta go back.
Say hello to 1950.
Re:Playing the patriotism card ... (Score:5, Informative)
It is nothing about that, it is about the laws on the books that give the government specific rights to restrict international activities of companies for national security purposes already specifically mention the Communist Party.
Your perception that that involves somehow "going back" is silly; the laws were never changed, and the language never stopped putting enemies in the already-enumerated boxes like "Communist" and "Terrorist."
It doesn't have anything to do with Communism per se, it has instead to do with a generic threat to throw government powers behind some sort of enforcement.
Just like, during my wife's immigration interview she had to answer lots of questions about if she was ever a member of the Communist Party, etc. Just because the media told you, "Yay, the Cold War ended," it didn't actually imply that Congress had rewritten the last 60 years of law to take out all the terminology.
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Unlike most, I actually hid under my fucking desk in elementary school as a drill, preparing for nuclear war involving the commies.
It was all horseshit then and it's horseshit now.
The American people were played by the government to fund a whole lot of useless crap and to institute fucked up policies.
This is the patriotism card, very similar to the national security one.
You can say your goddam pledge of allegiance three times a day, but I know the difference between bullshit and wild honey.
Re:Playing the patriotism card ... (Score:5, Insightful)
However, I will say that I got out of that because I felt that USSR was gone clear back in early 80s and reagan was simply delaying things. So I went into coding. Of course, in the 00s, I ended up working again with gov agencies. In this case, I was working on PAT act. Considering the equipment was so cool, I stayed with it. However, testing means that you see/listen to things. Even Samples. And one of the things you find out, is that America is under a massive threat from a number of parties. That includes China most of all. In fact, I dealt with 2 CHinese spies. One was sent to the mainland (though he came from Taiwan, he wanted mainland upon being booted). But others were also in the mix.
The point is, this was not horseshit again. ANd that was about 10 years ago.
Just because you want to either close your eyes to it, or think of yourself as a peacenik, or are actually working for the Russian/Chinese/etc, does not mean that it does not exist.
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... or are actually working for the Russian/Chinese/etc ...
You're through.
Re: Playing the patriotism card ... (Score:1)
It's really sad that the cunt you responded to is being nodded up instead of you. Slashdot is a weird place.
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Okay, but what is the nature of the relationship between Google and Huwawei? From what I can tell they share some AI research projects, which makes sense because both Huwawei and Google are leaders in the field and neither has particularly good access to the other's market.
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Re: Playing the patriotism card ... (Score:1)
Re:Playing the patriotism card ... (Score:4, Interesting)
The largest owner and the President/CEO are high-ranking members of the Communist Party (as well as retired officers in the Chinese Army). There's a connection there.
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So, better dead than red.
I lived it, read the book, saw the movie.
Make America Scared Again
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And as someone who's visited both China and India, I can tell you that practicing communism, at least in certain stages of development, turned out better for their nation.
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Why don't you tell us about all the places you've been and lived?
Let me guess
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You pretty much have to be a member of the Communist Party to get to that level in China. But what does that mean for Huwawei products?
Maybe they are backdoored by the government. But then again we know for a fact with 100% certainty that Cisco products are backdoored by the US government, and probably many other US products.
From a security standpoint relying on any single point of failure is always a bad idea. Just replacing your Huwawei network gear with Cisco isn't going to make your organization secure.
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... is the "Think of the children," model.
Especially damning is the "Communist," reference.
To make anything great again you gotta go back.
Say hello to 1950.
You ... think communism stopped being a problem in the 1950s?
You do realize that China is a communist dictatorship, right? A real dictatorship, not like here where you just play at calling your political opponents "dictators".
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... is the "Think of the children," model.
Oh. Like the current illegal immigration stuff where the solution seems to be, if you make it in with a child, you should be untouchable.
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Go read the recent news on that.
Fascists (Score:3)
Comment removed (Score:3)
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Interesting (Score:2)
And Americans wonder why we are in such a fucked up state.
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Are they? I heard congress was trying to grow some balls to overrule Trump (on this one small issue).
lies? (Score:1)
ZTE who was caught not only spying, but selling off intelligence to other groups.
Care to back up this lie with some links?
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Hey they trying to spy for free (Score:3)
Their own network devices will be made in China. Every movement to base and all the content they consume off base will be collected on by a Communist nation.
China will surround every US camp, fort, base, port with digital collection networks. Much like the NSA and GCHQ do globally.
Log every officer and their interests. Collect on the moments of every contractor and see their full digital lifestyles.
Encryption will do nothing as the device supports the same keys and updates.
What the NSA and GCHQ had to spend billions and decades on, China will get given for free by US mil and contractors enjoying low cost networking products from China.
Summary sucks. (Score:2)
She? Who? Unreferenced pronoun error.
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Huawei phones (Score:2)
It is an excellent phone, 2 - 3 times cheaper, but with the sames specs or better.
I can see why they are scared of Huawei,,, (Score:2)
We know from the Snowden leaks that the US government has the means to infect specific Cisco gear with targeted implants for spying or attack purposes. Its obvious they are worried that the Chinese may do the same for Huawei gear (imagine network gear at the core of something like the new AT&T 5G network being used for spying and the amount of intelligence data that the Chinese could gain from that)
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