USA warns Hong Kong government may demand business and customer data, run surveillance without warrants

Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam has slammed a US government advisory that warns business of warrantless surveillance and the potential for forced surrender of corporate and customer data in the Special Administrative Region (SAR). The advisory [PDF], issued on Friday US time by the US Departments of State, Treasury, …

[jgarbo]

Outrageous!

Are the Chinese going to act exactly like the US and scan & steal customer data? They copy everything!

[big_D]

Re: Outrageous!

Exactly what I was thinking.

Do as we say, not as we do... as the old saying goes.

[very angry man]

Re: Outrageous!

total agreement!

when I reread this article and replaced USA for Hong Kong it was much more believable and easer to read

[NetBlackOps]

Thr PRC is already starting to carve out exceptions in order not to interfere with IPO activity in Hong Kong. We'll see what happens. NSL has another meaning: National Security Letter, a statutory exception Constitutional Law in the context of national security. One that executed tousands of times per year bty the US government with little to no oversight as it is often executed with a gag order preventing notification of the target. Hmmm, seems US law is looser than PRC NSL. Odd that.

[big_D]

Yes, and don't forget the Patriot Act and CLOUD Act, the later states that all data held on foreign soil falls under US jurisdiction...

[Anonymous Coward]

PATRIOT Act vs FREEDOM Act

> Yes, and don't forget the Patriot Act and CLOUD Act, the later states that all data held on foreign soil falls under US jurisdiction...

And don't forget the FREEDOM Act was enacted to counter the PATRIOT Act because Americans felt the PATRIOT Act was too wide reaching and so lobbied for the FREEDOM Act to impose limits on what data the government can collect.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: PATRIOT Act vs FREEDOM Act

.. limits that were swiftly ignored, of course, because there have been a grand total of zero actual consequences* for abuse. Nada. None whatsever.

* _{I said actual consequences, not the usual slap with a wet noodle that goes for punishment as soon as an "agency" is involved}

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: PATRIOT Act vs FREEDOM Act

Is there supposed to be consequences? I've always been under the impression that an Act has scenes and players that are applauded for their performance, not punished. Whatever, the only thing that matters is door sales.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: PATRIOT Act vs FREEDOM Act

So the simple guide is that the more innocuous the name of the act the more evil it is ?

Somewhere in the basement of a US agency a world scrabble champion is trying to make an acronym spell APPLE-PIE, MOTHERHOOD and FLUFFY KITTENS act

[Anonymous Coward]

it would be logical

They scan foreign visitors' phones on arrival in mainland China, and they're dropping all pretense about HK, so it's only a matter of time.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: it would be logical

Do they? Since when? I was last there in late 2019, coming by train from HK, and my phone stayed safely in my pocket, as usual.

[very angry man]

Re: it would be logical

same as mine and i flew in with out a visa, the visa at the airport was quick and painless, only needed to organise a place to stay to qualify , mind you I'm on a kiwi passport might be different on a murkin one

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: it would be logical

Heh, Frog passport for me.

It's when I was flying from Beijing to San Francisco that I got the secondary inspection on landing, not the other way around.

The first time I tried the visa-less stay, it was in Shanghai, it was very new then, so I got to look at the customs computers running Windows XP while they sorted things out (yes, it was long after 2009...).

Second time in Beijing, it went smoothly.

[Pascal Monett]

"Heightened Risks Regarding Data Privacy"

That's rich coming from a country with National Security letters and more than 10 official requests per day to Microsoft - that we know of.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: "Heightened Risks Regarding Data Privacy"

But these are foreigners

[Anonymous Coward]

Malicious US attempts to damage Hong Kong's reputation as a global business hub doomed to fail

Well, even if those putative "malicious US attempts" do fail - the PRC's actions in removing HK's various freedoms will no doubt achieve the same result anyway.

[Bitsminer]

"underpinned by the rule of law"

No, this is a common misconception and mis-translation often (ab)used by Chinese authorities.

It is rule by law -- the draconian laws are there, and they are written down, for everyone to fear.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: "underpinned by the rule of law"

As opposed to breaking the law under government instruction and then being granted a pardon later ?