- Data Surveillance: Whoever collects the data from our cell phones knows us better than we know ourselves.
- Productivity Loss: It’s not just about taking data, it’s also about reducing productivity.
- Disinformation: Rather than debating what the U.S. calls China, look at what the CCP calls America.
Your cell phone may be a spy in your pocket, sending personal information to the Chinese government which then feeds disinformation back to you through TikTok and other social media apps, according to retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Spalding.
Spalding, former chief of the China, Mongolia, Taiwan Division at the Pentagon and Senior Defense Attaché to China, served as senior director of strategic planning for the National Security Council from 2017 to 2018. He is an expert on the military threat posed by China.
“The information that’s collected about you, particularly from apps like TikTok, is just about everything that every sensor on that device [collects],” Spalding said in a March 10 interview with Jan Jekielek, a senior editor at The Epoch Times and host of “American Thought Leaders.”
The data is primarily used to determine which advertisements to place in front of you but can be used for other purposes, particularly if collected by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to Spalding.
That makes individuals, businesses, and even the country vulnerable to data surveillance, productivity loss, and Chinese influence campaigns.
Data Surveillance
U.S. corporations and government officials may be particularly vulnerable to data surveillance, according to Spalding.
“Say you’re a J.P. Morgan executive,” Spalding said.
“Somebody can track you and who you’re talking to. All they need to do is provide that data to an intel analyst and they can present a fairly good picture of what that person is doing. So it’s a competitive intelligence problem for business.”
The threat is magnified when data is collected on elected officials or government staff members, Spalding said.
“Who’s going to the White House today? Who are they meeting? What are they talking about? These are the things that you can gather from this [data],” Spalding said. “It’s happening every single day because I see it in my business.”
