Huawei - can they be trusted?

Dirk Diggler

Dirk Diggler

Dirk Diggler

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Given the negative press surrounding Huawei, and considering the influence the Chinese government could exert, is it really a good idea to own one of their handsets? I understand that Apple & Google are corporate leeches, but are Huawei in another league altogether?

I'm considering switching from Pixel 2 XL but I'm asking myself, if national governments don't trust them with sensitive data then why should I?

Could a mod add a poll?

Yes
No
Pancake
 
I don’t know about Google, but Apple have very publicly stated that they won’t allow any OS backdoors for the US security services.

Huawei’s CEO will not make a similar statement unless he wants to find himself and his entire family locked away in Citizen Re-Education Camp #18 mining uranium with their teeth.
 
String said:
Given the negative press surrounding Huawei, and considering the influence the Chinese government could exert, is it really a good idea to own one of their handsets? I understand that Apple & Google are corporate leeches, but are Huawei in another league altogether?
Click to expand...

At this time there is no proof that Huawei are working with the Chinese Government.

The only confirmed backdoor into Huawei tech is by the NSA, they created backdoor code to check if the Chinese Government/Intelligence agencies were monitoring communications using Haawei hardware, they found no proof.

Terminal_Boy said:
Huawei’s CEO will not make a similar statement unless he wants to find himself and his entire family locked away in Citizen Re-Education Camp #18 mining uranium with their teeth.
Click to expand...

Haewaei's Australian subsidiary chairman has confirmed they would not hand over Australian user data to the Chinese.

However, even if all local subsidiaries made the same claims you are probably correct that the Chinese Government could be easily manipulating the products of the company and it would be unlikely anyone in China would speak up.

ttaskmaster said:
If they can't leverage things officially, don't the CIA usually buy or blackmail their way in, though...?
Click to expand...

The NSA are known to create backdoors into US products before export:

The reality is that the US is accusing the Chinese of doing the same as them.

I would ask a different question: if the Chinese can manipulate the hardware/software of Haewei's phones, should we trust any phone manufactured in China?
 
If Citizen Four is to be believed then everything we write is monitored, back door or not.

Take it on that level, use any phone to your heart's content.
 
If you have a secure platform, Phone OS and hardware, then you can use encryption to secure messaging or other data. All on the assumption that the encryption algorithms are not comprimsed.
 
I can't say I'd be concerned enough not to buy Huawei. There does't seem to be any evidence of them doing anything wrong as far as I'm aware, and its more a case of what they could do, but if that's the case I'm sure there are a lot of other manufacturers we could be worried about. I also think America are banging on about this for their own agenda (trade war and competition with Apple).

Also, if you're really worried about Huawei then its not just the handset to think about, they are responsible for a lot of the infrastructure so you're screwed anyway. :)

Finally, I can't imagine having any data the Chinese government is very interested in. I know that's not the attitude when it comes to privacy, but I find it kinda hard to care.
 
ttaskmaster said:
I would suggest you trust no product made in any country with a government capable of arranging backdoors, regardless of whether the manufacturer virtue signals or not.
Click to expand...

I completely agree, at this time no Government can be trusted with our privacy.
 
Back when I was working at Messybeast, China - not Russia - was the #1 threat. And that was over a decade ago. It hasn't changed.
 
Almost everything you do on any internet connected device is shared and stored, regardless of whether Huawei is sharing it or not.

Especially since we live in the UK, with Tempora on our door step.
 
It really wouldn't be in Huawei's interest to allow a backdoor for the Chinese government, these things always come out one way or another, and something like that would just destroy a company.

Can you imagine how quickly Apple would fall if it was found out they were allowing CIA/NSA et al backdoor access to user data. Even more so after publicly announcing that they would not work with government agencies.

I suspect in Huawei's case, it's more a case of not publicly announcing that you won't be working with the Chinese government, because bad things generally happen to those who speak out.

Anyway, i'd imagine any of Huawei's hardware will be under constant scrutiny by European and US agencies. If Huawei are likely to be the dominant player for 5G technology, i'd be pretty certain the guys at GCHQ will have been thoroughly looking for any loopholes.
 
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