A Nokia user in Finland reported that their phone data, including GPS coordinates and SIM card number, would often be sent in an unencrypted format to a server which Finnish state broadcaster NRK reported was located in China and owned by China Telecom. Nokia phones in Finland are manufactured by Finnish company HMD Global, which declined to say who owned the server. (Reuters)
Talking point: This report could heighten existing tensions between Western countries and China over cybersecurity, centred so far around the telecommunications company Huawei. Chinese cybersecurity laws require domestic firms like Huawei are to hand data over to the Chinese government if requested. Nokia, a Finnish company, isn’t beholden to these laws. But it has inked several deals with China Telecom, most recently in November 2018, when the Finnish firm made agreements worth $2 billion with Chinese carriers for 5G development.