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Chinese Keyboard App Vulnerabilities Explained

We analyzed third-party keyboard apps Tencent QQ, Baidu, and iFlytek, on the Android, iOS, and Windows platforms. Along with Tencent Sogou, they comprise over 95% of the market share for third-party keyboard apps in China. This is an FAQ for the full report titled “The not-so-silent type: Vulnerabilities across keyboard apps reveal keystrokes to network eavesdroppers.”

Privacy in the WeChat Ecosystem Explained

This FAQ accompanies the full report on privacy in the WeChat ecosystem. We analyzes privacy issues with popular app WeChat by reviewing the data collected by the app and sent to WeChat servers during the regular operation of its various features. We find that they collect more usage data than is disclosed in the WeChat privacy policy.

FAQ: A comparison of search censorship in China

We discovered over 60,000 unique censorship rules used to partially or totally censor search results across eight China-accessible search platforms analyzed. These findings call into question the ability of non-Chinese technology companies to better resist censorship demands than their Chinese counterparts.

Mobility Data and Canadian Privacy Law Explained

Analysis and recommendations pertaining to the collection of de-identified mobility data and its use in Canadian privacy law. In this explainer, we discuss our findings and recommendations with Amanda Cutinha and Christopher Parsons, the report’s authors.

Pandemic Privacy Explained

On September 28, the Citizen Lab published an analysis of COVID-19 data collection practices. In this post, we discuss the significance of the findings with report authors.

Apple Engraving Censorship Explained

On August 18, the Citizen Lab published an analysis of Apple product engraving services and observed censorship. In this post, we discuss the significance of the findings with report authors. What has your study of Apple engraving services revealed? We analyzed Apple’s filtering of product engravings in six regions, discovering 1,105 keyword filtering rules used… Read more »

Bill C-11 Explained

On April 22, the Citizen Lab published recommendations for Bill C-11, proposed updates to Canadian federal commercial privacy legislation. In this explainer, we discuss those recommendations with Christopher Parsons, the post’s lead author.

TikTok and Douyin Explained

In this explainer, we discuss the findings of our comparative analysis of security, privacy, and censorship issues in TikTok and Douyin.