US intelligence chiefs warn against buying Huawei products

Huawei has come under fire in the US left and right, but not necessarily for anything the company has done. Earlier this year the company was set to announce the Mate 10 Pro on AT&T, but AT&T backed out of the deal, allegedly due to government pressure.

Now the heads of the CIA, FBI, NSA, and the director of national intelligence have publicly warned against buying devices from the Chinese company. They cited cybersecurity risks and risks of espionage.  FBI Director Chris Wray had this to say:

“We’re deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don’t share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks. That provides the capacity to exert pressure or control over our telecommunications infrastructure. It provides the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information. And it provides the capacity to conduct undetected espionage.”

It definitely sounds bad for Huawei, but so far no proof of any risks has been provided. While other Chinese companies like ZTE and OnePlus have had their fair share of controversies around security, Huawei has not had any major security controversies in recent memory. To be singled out like this is strange.

The decision of which smartphone company to support is yours, and you must make it wisely, taking all the data around you into account. Certain companies are known to be more lax about security than others. Whether Huawei actually collects more data than other smartphone makers (and all of them collect a lot of data as it is) is yet to be seen.

source: androidandme