China’s tightening national security laws on Hong Kong are raising concerns about the Chinese Communist Party’s access to the data of hundreds of thousands of Australian users of the social media and payment application WeChat.
Data including GPS and device information goes to WeChat’s servers in Hong Kong - which in 2020 was subject to sweeping new national security laws imposed by China - according to a white paper by Canberra-based cybersecurity and intelligence firm Internet 2.0, which analysed the WeChat app.