The Control Yuan of the Republic of China stated that the popular Taiwanese shopping platform Shopee is suspected to have Chinese investment background, affecting the national cybersecurity and economic sovereignty. Control Yuan members Lai Chen-chang and Lai Ting-ming have applied for an automatic investigation.
According to a press release issued by the Control Yuan of the Republic of China today (17th), “It is reported that Shopee, the shopping platform commonly used by the people, has its parent company Sea Limited, whose major shareholder is Hong Kong’s Tencent, and the current directors have close ties to individuals with backgrounds in the Chinese Communist Party and business. The platform is suspected to have Chinese investment background and it has access to personal data and financial information of the people, which may affect our national information security and economic sovereignty. What is the truth? Control Yuan members Lai Chen-chang and Lai Ting-ming have applied for an automatic investigation.”
The members of the Control Yuan pointed out, “Whether the Shopee platform’s investments and operations in our country have been properly reviewed and supervised by the competent authority? Is the information security mechanism of the platform sound? Is there any illegal use of personal data and funds that they possess? All of these require a thorough understanding.”
In addition, recently, a netizen posted on Threads, stating that in the “App Privacy Report” of the iPhone, it was discovered that the Shopee shopping app often quietly accesses the contents of the phone’s album in the background, which made him exclaim in fear that he “dared not use it anymore.”
Shopee responded that the Shopee shopping app only activates related permissions after users allow access to the phone album function, so that when users open the Shopee app, they can use functions such as “upload images” and “search for products by image.” If users do not need to use related functions, they can adjust the permissions through the phone settings at any time, without affecting the usage rights.