Slashdot Mirror


US Lawmakers Want Google To Reconsider Links To China's Huawei (reuters.com)

Some U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have asked Google on Wednesday to reconsider its work with Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei, citing security concerns. Reuters reports: In a letter to Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai, the lawmakers said Google recently decided not to renew "Project Maven," an artificial intelligence research partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense. "While we regret that Google did not want to continue a long and fruitful tradition of collaboration between the military and technology companies, we are even more disappointed that Google apparently is more willing to support the Chinese Communist Party than the U.S. military," they wrote. The letter was signed by Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio, Republican Representatives Michael Conaway and Liz Cheney, and Democratic Representative Dutch Ruppersberger.

"Like many U.S. companies, we have agreements with dozens of OEMs (manufacturers) around the world, including Huawei. We do not provide special access to Google user data as part of these agreement, and our agreements include privacy and security protections for use data," she said in an emailed statement.

7 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Bullying by JcMorin · · Score: 4, Informative

    I view that as full Bullying from the gov.

    1. Re:Bullying by postbigbang · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Cite then, chapter and verse, where Huawei has a product that contains code that benefits the Chinese government in a security risk scenario.

      No one has. It's bullshit until they do. This is Cisco/Juniper bribery/legislative influence until someone points to actual code that is a security risk or compromise.

      Are they backdoor'd? Are their routers loaded with malware? No one can point to a smoking gun. This is about economics, not security, until they can cite actual security problems. This is the same group of legislative nitwits that are slowly killing the ACA, twiddling their thumbs while children are forcibly separated from their parents at borders, who can't decide on a budget, but who are happy to pass massive budget if the word "military" is involved, spend billions on planes that don't fly, and otherwise don't have anything like consumerism in mind.

      The Android operating system is a recipe for making Google plentiful amounts of money, with security a nascent side-thought. Google Play is rife with malware, crypto-currency laden apps, and worse.

      So when you say, "I suppose you don't fully grasp the threat of backdoored mobile computers", I have to laugh loudly.

      --
      ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
  2. Did they not mentin ZTE? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Strange they didn't mention the other big Chinese OEM with government ties.... ZTE, the one that broke Iran and North Korean sanctions.

    "@realDonaldTrump
    President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!
    8:01 AM - 13 May 2018 "

    Some deal was done, Trump let them off, then there was some internal arguments, then that became a fine instead of $1 billion, then Senate voted to keep the sanctions, and its currently in limbo while the House decides to back it or not.

    Make China Great Again! Too many jobs lost in China!

  3. Re:Playing the patriotism card ... by Aighearach · · Score: 4, Informative

    It is nothing about that, it is about the laws on the books that give the government specific rights to restrict international activities of companies for national security purposes already specifically mention the Communist Party.

    Your perception that that involves somehow "going back" is silly; the laws were never changed, and the language never stopped putting enemies in the already-enumerated boxes like "Communist" and "Terrorist."

    It doesn't have anything to do with Communism per se, it has instead to do with a generic threat to throw government powers behind some sort of enforcement.

    Just like, during my wife's immigration interview she had to answer lots of questions about if she was ever a member of the Communist Party, etc. Just because the media told you, "Yay, the Cold War ended," it didn't actually imply that Congress had rewritten the last 60 years of law to take out all the terminology.

  4. Sour Grapes by thesupraman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Its some pissed military contract manager who has a bad case of sour grapes because he cannot not fulfill his 'development' project as it was all going to be from google..

    'Boo Hoo, I'm going to throw all my toys out of the cot and scream until I get what I want' is how this reads.

    Pathetic really.

  5. Re:Playing the patriotism card ... by WindBourne · · Score: 4, Insightful

    lol. We obviously grew up at the same time, but obviously we see things differently. See, my father sat on a runway with a single payload for a week in Oct 1962. Likewise, I worked for the DOD doing bio-chemical warfare research and became well aware of how much work the Soviet was doing with biologicals (esp anthrax and small pox), along with Chemicals( esp Novichok ). None of this was horseshit.

    However, I will say that I got out of that because I felt that USSR was gone clear back in early 80s and reagan was simply delaying things. So I went into coding. Of course, in the 00s, I ended up working again with gov agencies. In this case, I was working on PAT act. Considering the equipment was so cool, I stayed with it. However, testing means that you see/listen to things. Even Samples. And one of the things you find out, is that America is under a massive threat from a number of parties. That includes China most of all. In fact, I dealt with 2 CHinese spies. One was sent to the mainland (though he came from Taiwan, he wanted mainland upon being booted). But others were also in the mix.

    The point is, this was not horseshit again. ANd that was about 10 years ago.

    Just because you want to either close your eyes to it, or think of yourself as a peacenik, or are actually working for the Russian/Chinese/etc, does not mean that it does not exist.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  6. Re:Playing the patriotism card ... by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Especially damning is the "Communist,"

    The largest owner and the President/CEO are high-ranking members of the Communist Party (as well as retired officers in the Chinese Army). There's a connection there.

    --
    Your ad here. Ask me how!