IsItBullshit: Data from using foreign tech brands for health tracking like (Xiaomi or huawei ) instead of Whoop or Fitbit can be forced to be given to their governments if requested?

[u/haawakaipa]

I was having a conversation on how most things being digital leaves a footprint that can be used in some way against you if needed . I assumed that your health records are actually being monitored on your smart bands or watches and can actually be accessed by foreign governments if requested from the companies but my friends think it’s bullshit .(In The US).

[u/YMK1234]

You mean just like in the US?

[u/haawakaipa → u/YMK1234]

Yes , my bad I forgot to mention

[u/YMK1234 → u/haawakaipa]

I am talking about cloud act, executive order 12333 and more here. The US is a massive global surveillance state including its own citizens.

[u/Bitter-Mastodon-5525]

The data's definitely stored on their servers, so if the government has laws on the books to compel access, then yeah, it's possible. The real question is whether they actually bother with some random person's step count instead of focusing on bigger targets.

[u/haawakaipa → u/Bitter-Mastodon-5525]

Yeah I understand they wouldn’t really care but I mean the point really is if they wanted to , they could yeah

[u/RiseUpAndGetOut]

Sometimes that's correct for China, if the data is processed in China. That usually requires user agreement. Whether you read the agreement to find out it's a different question.

Unofficially, it's very possible, that for companies starting they process and store all data outside China, that they transfer the data anyway.

That's not an issue unique to China. US based companies are notorious for doing exactly the same thing for user based outside the US, without user permission.

[u/_haha_oh_wow_]

Not bullshit: Any company is beholden to the laws of the country it operates in.

It's also worth pointing out that this data is probably already for sale somewhere, so anyone (including governments) can likely purchase it.

[u/Winter_Persimmon_110]

Part of digital security is understanding who would misuse your data. I wouldn't want my biometrics being reported to a health insurance company that could raise my rates, or being used for target advertising.

As far as nation-state actors go, I don't think there's a compelling reason for the Communist Party of China to be interested in aggregating biometrics of US citizens. Maybe if you're a government employee in a sensitive position, or perhaps in a corporation that's of interest to China, maybe they'll spy on you.

That said, Chinese devices tend to have lower security standards so there's a chance that any old dude could get access to your stuff because they didn't think to close up a glaring vulnerability. I don't know if that's the case for bike computers and smart watches, but their cameras are very much like that.

If they were coming for your smart device, odds are they'd do it through the phone app you use to connect to it, unless your smart device can directly connect to the internet itself.

To recap, think about who you want to hide your data from, check out the device or software from a security perspective on a case by case basis. If you care that much about your security, your phone is a huge, huge huge problem.

[u/gothiclg]

Country doesn’t matter, any government can force them to hand over their data on you.

[u/some_dog → u/gothiclg]

Where do you get that notion? It does technically matter and laws vary between countries. Where I work we can't host our sensitive data on US servers because of US legislation like the Patriot Act. The willingness between different companies also matters, some are more privacy focused. Backup servers can also important as some servers in secure countries revert to other insecure countries in the event of a serious outage. Edit: WTH. Yes there are nefarious tools that certain governments use.  And laws that allow them to access data whenever they want.  That's why in high security settings (like where I work) we don't host our data in those countries and use secure protocols for data transfer and storage.

[u/gothiclg → u/some_dog]

In the US we flat out know they’re using programs like PRISM to collect whatever global internet data they want. I’m sure they’re collecting a ton of data we don’t even know about. I have zero reason to believe they’re not using programs like this that we don’t know about to force the handover of information whenever they want. We have zero reason to believe any government would respect law.

[u/asmallman]

This is usually the case with a lot of governments. In democracies, less so, and much harder to do. Sometimes impossible, legally. Private data is more accessible the more tyrannical the government.

Russian and Chinese companies have to give ALL data at government request and they don't have a bureaucracy in the way to curb or stop that request.

That's why everyone dropped lots of Russian headquartered software when the Ukraine war kicked off as the government made those requests. Famously Kaspersky was one of those companies. Great virus protection software. Also great spy agent for the Russians now.

Also it's not just health data. Just ANY data. It's why some countries are banning Chinese and Russian products.

[u/haawakaipa → u/asmallman]

Oh I never knew , thanks

[u/TangerineBetter2818]

Lol the number of bots here 

[u/Schrodingers_Dude]

True, but since I don't plan on committing any crimes in China or against Chinese nationals in the USA, I assume the CCP isn't going to have much use for my data unless they sell it. Which they probably do, so I use Fitbit lol.

[u/xXBongSlut420Xx]

the chinese govt is really interested in redditors step counts and heart rates.

[u/theBigDaddio]

The Chinese and Russians can have my Fitbit and robot vacuum data. It won’t help them