TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST
tive information on 80 million Americans.[1] In 2015, China hacked the Office of Personnel Management, which holds security clearance information, acquiring sensitive data on 20 million Americans who work for the federal government.[2] In 2017, the Chinese government hacked Equifax, obtaining the names, birthdates, social security numbers, and credit scores of 145 million Americans.[3]
In 2019, Chinese hackers attacked Marriott, gathering information on 383 million guests, including their passport numbers.[4] And, in 2016, a Chinese company even bought the dating app Grindr to harvest its data, including the HIV status of users, before the U.S. government forced a divestiture on national security grounds.[5] These are just a few of the instances we know about.
How will the Chinese Communist Party use this data? In the same way it uses data within China’s borders: to target, to flatter, to cajole, to influence, to coerce, and to even blackmail individuals to say and do things that serve the Party’s interests. This is ‘micro targeting’ beyond an advertiser’s wildest dreams. China, unlike advertisers, will not be stopped by government regulations. The Chinese Communist Party simply wants to know everything about you—just as it likes to know almost everything about every individual living in China.
- ↑ Erik Larson, “Chinese Citizen Indicted in Anthem Hack of 80 Million People,” Bloomberg, May 9, 2019, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-09/chinese-national-indicted-by-u-s-grand-jury-over-anthem-hack
- ↑ Ellen Nakashima, “Hacks of OPM Databases Compromised 22.1 Million People, Federal Authorities Say,” The Washington Post, July 9, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/federal-eye/wp/2015/07/09/hack-of-security-clearance-system-affected-21-5-million-people-federal-authorities-say/
- ↑ Katie Benner, “U.S. Charges Chinese Military Officers in 2017 Equifax Hacking,” New York Times, February 10, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/10/us/politics/equifax-hack-china.html
- ↑ David Sanger, “Marriott Data Breach Is Traced to Chinese Hackers as U.S. Readies Crackdown on Beijing,” New York Times, December 11, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/11/us/politics/trump-china-trade.html
- ↑ David Sanger, “Grindr Is Owned by a Chinese Firm, and the U.S. Is Trying to Force It to Sell,” New York Times, March 28, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/us/politics/grindr-china-national-security.html
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