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This is the first direct evidence that China is monitoring foreign individuals and institutions for intelligence and influence purposes outside its own borders.
A data analyst told Free Europe.
The database was compiled from 2.3 billion articles and 2.1 billion social media posts. The total size of text files is 1 terabyte, writes in his exploratory article Free Europe.
Hungarians
Free Europe has received the part of the database that contains information on Hungarians.
The list includes 710 people, including prominent and local politicians and their families, business executives, military officials, but there is also a journalist on the list.
Since only a small part of the data was recovered, Zhenhua likely collected data on thousands of Hungarians. The portal will announce exactly who the Hungarians are in the database later.
Foreigners include British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Australian Scott Morrison, Indian Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and their families, ministers from many countries, and members of the British royal family. In addition to them, information was also collected on low- and high-ranking soldiers from the armies of various countries, researchers working in industries important to China, software developers and business executives, diplomats or just convicted criminals.
Facebook, Twitter, TikTok
About 80 percent of the data collected comes from the Internet, articles accessible to anyone, and social media profiles. Data collection sites such as Factiva and Crunchbase were used to search for information. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, but even TikTok pages were scrutinized by the compilers of the database, who probably combed the social sites with Zhenhua’s own development programs. What a person shares is worth paying attention to because even non-public data can be accessed.
The smart ones have access to increasingly useful information from open sources.
90 percent of military intelligence can be obtained by analyzing public data.
–Liang Haoyau is an expert in Big Data.
But it’s not just soldiers who need to pay attention to what they share about themselves.
If you are a 14-year-old daughter of a politician, Chinese intelligence is known to monitor your activity on social media and record any information that may or may not be interesting in the future.
– Asked by Professor Clive Hamilton to ABC.
The remaining 20 percent of the information comes from offline sources that could have been purchased from hackers or data merchants. The database also contains information that users themselves have shared, but not publicly, according to a statement from the experts who analyzed the database to Free Europe.
Data collection was started in 2017 by a company called Shenzhen Zhenhua Data Information Technology and is constantly updated with new information. The purpose of the database is clear, according to experts: to help the Chinese government and military intelligence.
Portable spying
Database analysts say it’s pretty clear that this is targeted data collection. This is because there are only people in the database who, through their workplace or relationships, have an impact on decision making or access important information, be it technology, infrastructure or military operations. It also includes those who have an opinion-shaping role, such as politicians and journalists.
The information collected includes personal data (date of birth, address, marital status), political and family relationships, social media profiles, information on criminal and military advances, financial information or even photographs of the person. In addition to some individuals, analyzes were also found in the database, as well as those marked “important” by the creators of the database.
The files containing the data have already been damaged for the researchers, who were only able to recover about 10 percent of the information. Of the approximately 250,000 people known in this way, 52,000 are American, 35,000 are Australian, 17,000 are Hispanic, 10,000 are Indian and British, and 5,000 are Canadian.
Fake sites linked to China are suspected of trying to influence election campaigns in various countries.
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