[melaniejs (OP)]

Paul asks:

The Americans claim Huawei might be used by the Chinese government for spying, could the Americans use Microsoft, Google and Facebook to do the same thing?

Anyone here knows?

[evan_au]

All governments, police forces and recruitment agencies (as well as the general public) spy on citizens of their own country (and citizens of other countries) using public sources like social media.

If police or government agencies can get a warrant, they can demand non-public information from the various platforms that operate in their country. The difficulty of getting a warrant differs greatly between different countries.

[syhprum]

Of course all countries spy on anyone they can

[alancalverd]

Not "could". NSA and GCHQ were established to do exactly that. It's so much easier than monitoring phone calls, though I do miss the phone tap that Special Branch used to keep on me - it pretty well killed the cold sales calls. 

[Bored chemist]

The point about "spying" is that it's covert.
Since we all know they are listening in I'm not sure it counts.

[alancalverd]

Interesting twist, BC. Perhaps spying isn't the right word. Signals intelligence has been around for as long as signals could be intercepted by third parties, from watching flags and smoke signals and listening to bugle calls, through Enigma and Colossus, to Russian "trawlers" festooned with aerials cruising in the North Sea. U2 "weather research flights" and satellite imagery are scarcely covert, just difficult to prevent.

All that has happened in recent years is that the traffic has become a lot easier to intercept and process. With just one possible exception: German secret service has apparently taken to using typewriters and paper messages: read and burn, with no "leakage" or "paper trail" - a compete misnomer for email history!

[evan_au]

Even the typewriters are not safe...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/silicon-revolution/the-crazy-story-of-how-soviet-russia-bugged-an-american-embassys-typewriters

[evan_au]

The big concern at the moment is about covert COVID-tracking apps on peoples phones.

Singapore had an app which was apparently downloaded by 20% of the population. That means the percentage of close contacts which can be detected by the app is 0.2 x 0.2 = 0.04 (4%).
-Last I heard, Australia's app has reached a similar proportion of the population

I think many people are reluctant to download an app which could be repurposed for other uses later.
- They fear the police state
- But, as some of the recent protests show, they don't fear the sick state, which could be even more life-threatening...

[alancalverd]

Even the typewriters are not safe...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/silicon-revolution/the-crazy-story-of-how-soviet-russia-bugged-an-american-embassys-typewriters

It's brilliant, but one wonders how Russian technicians got access to IBM Selectrics inside the embassy. Were they bought by open tender and supplied by a Russian company? Or was there a mole in the IBM factory (in Amsterdam - probably supplying the whole of NATO!), implanting spyware in every machine just in case somebody important buys it? Please don't anyone tell me that they were actually built under contract in Russia!

Anyway my understanding is that the Germans know the story and are using manual upright Remingtons or suchlike museum pieces.

[Bored chemist]

Even the typewriters are not safe...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/silicon-revolution/the-crazy-story-of-how-soviet-russia-bugged-an-american-embassys-typewriters

And the battle goes on.
https://thehackernews.com/2020/05/air-gap-malware-power-speaker.html

Singapore had an app which was apparently downloaded by 20% of the population.

What fraction of that 20% were elderly?
Because that's the group who are most at risk, but least likely to have a smart phone.

I'm personally reluctant to run any app from which friends of Mr Cummings will profit.