Information/Technology - 23. page

China’s car sharing company Didi Chunxing was subject to a state security audit after its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the United States in late June. Recently, Beijing issued new regulations requiring that important car data be stored within the country and that a security assessment be implemented before any data leaves China.

According to China’s state media such as Xinhua News Agency, the “automobile data security management regulations (for trial implementation),” effective October 1, 2021, were jointly promulgated by the State Internet Information Office of China, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Transportation.

The regulations state that, if there is a need to provide important data outside the country for business purposes, the auto data operator should implement a security assessment and should not let the data leave the country in violation of the security assessment. The operators are required to report such data activities in their annual report.

The regulations point out that the auto data carrier, when conducting important data processing activities, should follow the provisions of the risk assessment, and submit the security risk assessment report to local authorities. The national cyber authorities will spot-check the security assessment. Car data processors are supposed to cooperate.

Source: Central News Agency, August 20, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202108200133.aspx

Eight out of the 25 board members of the scientific journal, “Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine,” resigned recently to protest the journal’s publishing many articles that Chinese authors had written and which could lead to unethical or discriminating DNA profiling. The journal is published by Wiley, a world premier scientific publisher based in New Jersey.

Yves Moreau, a bio-information expert at the University of Leuven in Belgium found that, earlier this year, the journal published 18 papers with ethical issues. Some of the papers described genetic differences between ethnic groups, which the Chinese police could use for DNA profiling. Other papers relied on samples that Moreau suspected were taken without proper consent. Beijing wants to build a genetic library for all of the 700 million males in China and thus has collected DNA from all males, some with people’s consent and some by force.

In March, Moreau raised the issue to Suzanne Hart, the journal’s editor-in-chief. After not getting a meaningful answer, he raised the issue to the full board in June. Some board members also inquired of Suzanne Hart and eventually, eight out of the 25 board members resigned in protest.

Sources:
1. Radio Free Asia, August 7, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/9-08072021152536.html
2. The Intercept, August 4, 2021
https://theintercept.com/2021/08/04/dna-profiling-forensic-genetics-journal-resignations-china/

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that popular video conferencing provider Zoom Video Communications will have to pay $85 million to its users as part of the settlement of a class-action lawsuit. The company was accused of lying about offering end-to-end encryption on its services; as well as providing user data to Facebook and Google without permission. This came nine months after Zoom agreed to security improvements and a “prohibition on privacy and security misrepresentations” in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. However, the FTC settlement didn’t include compensation for users. In addition to payments, Zoom agreed to over a dozen major changes to its practices. Zoom later issued a statement promising, “The privacy and security of our users are top priorities for Zoom.” Back in 2020, it was revealed that Zoom did not offer end-to-end encryption despite claiming to do so. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic forced more people to work from home, Zoom’s user base has increased fivefold. In April 2021, the company had 497,000 customers with more than 10 employees, compared to only 81,900 in January 2020. Zoom said that, as more people get vaccinated and return to work, its growth may slow down.

Source: Sina, August 2, 2021
https://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/2021-08-02/doc-ikqciyzk8970558.shtml

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has conducted several biological experiments which violate human ethics. While other countries have not done them because they are unethical, the CCP has been able to claim they are the “first in the world” to do them. Down the road, these experiments, as listed below, may jeopardize humanity.

1. Make male rats pregnant. On June 9, BioRxiv published a research paper that researchers from the China Naval Medical University produced. It described and gave out the actual method to sacrifice three female rats to make one male rat pregnant.
2. Human-monkey chimeric embryos. On April 15, a research team from Kunming University of Technology in China and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in the United States developed embryos with cells originating from humans and also with cells originating from monkeys.
3. Genetically modified fetuses. In late November 2018, Chinese scientist He Jiankui created a situation in which twin baby girls were born with modified genes.
4.  Shi Zhengli and the Wuhan Institute of Virology worked on modifying the Coronavirus.

Source: Epoch Times, June 29, 2021
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/6/29/n13054452.htm