With TikTok and DeepSeek, young people are forking over sensitive personal data to the Chinese government. We should be worried.
Among Gen Z, there’s a certain nihilism about China’s access to American data. Some argue that they have nothing to hide. Others say that, if American billionaires can access their data, why not let China, too? When TikTok momentarily shut down, young people ran to RedNote, a Chinese alternative, as a not-very-veiled middle finger to the U.S. government.
China’s threat to our data security is difficult to comprehend. If they were accessing sensitive information, we wouldn’t see it. And, for young people not yet in the workforce, their privacy concerns may be decades away. But we should take this threat seriously; China isn’t some victimless entity to hand over your data to.
“Knowing that the world’s largest police state is collecting your data should make anyone nervous,” James Lewis, a researcher at the Center for International and Strategic Studies, writes in an email. “China’s laws say that any and all Chinese companies must turn over data if MSS asks for it and there is no appeal or refusal.”
The domestic capitalists versus the foreign autocrats
Many Americans aren’t thrilled with who has access to their data already. Elon Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency has effectively taken a buzzsaw to the federal bureaucracy, holds gobs of sensitive user data through X. The same goes for Mark Zuckerberg and his portfolio at Meta. So why would we care about China having that data too?
But there’s a difference between domestic and foreign data ownership. The United States has a court system users can fight through if their data is misused. If China abuses your data, there’s no recourse. Moreover, the Chinese government and America-based companies have completely different incentives.
“Musk and Zuckerberg have a lot of money, but China’s rulers have a thousand times more, plus an army and nuclear weapons,” Lewis writes. “They’re individuals, the [Chinese Communist Party] CCP is a huge institution that will do anything to maintain the Party’s control.”
China has also committed dozens of documented human rights abuses. Bill Drexel, a fellow at the Center for New American Security, says it’s entirely possible the CCP is using American data to fuel their abuses of power. Shipping off our data to China helps “strengthen and augment” their “techno-authoritarian” governance, he argues.
“These companies are part of an ecosystem that is actively engaging in genocide,” Drexel says. “Yes, Facebook is not my favorite company, but it doesn’t have Uyghurs in labor camps.”
‘Preventative’ data privacy
Chinese ownership of American personal data feels like a victimless crime. We’d likely never see its usage, given how secretive China’s data collection process is. (Drexel says that experts are even wary of saying what they know, given how quickly the CCP can “patch” holes.) That means we don’t even know if the abuse is happening at all. Much of the conversation around a TikTok ban covered how China could access American data, not that they are.
But there are signs. Lewis says the CCP is “addicted” to collecting data, having done so through health insurance companies, airlines, travel agents, and federal offices since 2014. True, America has the Foreign Information Surveillance Act, which allows the government to collect foreign intelligence information through means such as electronic surveillance and physical searches. But, he writes, compared to the CCP’s operations, that law “looks like a chihuahua.”
The greatest threat of China’s data abuse is pluralistic in nature; the fear, basically, is that the CCP can effectively mine the data of millions of Americans for value. But that’s not to say some individuals aren’t especially vulnerable. Those in military and intelligence roles are especially wary of China’s data overreach, Drexel notes, but more working professionals should be cautious.
“It’s conceivable that if you’re in a business role that has significant national competitiveness dimensions, they could use it there too,” he says. “China has been extremely effective at corporate espionage and IP theft. You can see this data coming into the service of that.”
That puts young people in an especially blind position. Most have yet to reach high-ranking military status or climb to the top of the corporate ladder. Why would China care about the data of a random high school student? But that teenager scrolling Red Note or treating DeepSeek like a therapist could enter a sensitive industry in the decades to come. Meanwhile, the CCP is building their leverage.
Lewis calls data privacy “preventative,” trying to cut out foreign data abuse at the root. But Americans are notoriously bad at valuing forward-looking policy. Just look at climate change; while many Americans claim to care about the issue, it remains low on their priorities because it is so far away. But we should want to protect our future selves—especially from the whims of a foreign competitor with which there is no legal fallback.
Drexel puts it bluntly: “The CCP isn’t interested in you until they are.”
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