The directors of six U.S. intelligence agencies are cautioning consumers against this device brand.
The heads of six different intelligence agencies, including the FBI, CIA and NSA, as well as the director of national intelligence, have warned Americans not to buy ZTE or Huawei smartphones. These two Chinese brands are direct rivals to Apple and the intelligence directors have expressed their distrust of the companies.
Those same chiefs applauded American telecom companies for resisting competition from China.
The commendation of the American telecom industry were doled out during a recent hearing. The intelligence directors said the U.S. companies had done a good job in resisting the Chinese firms. The hearing had to do with worldwide threats and was held on February 13, 2018 in Washington D.C.
Huawei smartphones have been attempting to enter the American market for several years. Their original effort was made through a partnership that looked promising with AT&T. That partnership was eventually cancelled.
The six American intelligence directors said they would not recommend the use of Huawei smartphones.
They were speaking to a Senate Intelligence Committee at the time. They explained that they would not recommend that American consumers purchase or use either products or services from the Huawei Chinese smartphone maker.
The six agency heads had originally stated that they did not trust Huawei, a rival to Apple, nor did they trust the ZTE telecom company from the same country. Their original recommendations were that state agencies and public servants steer clear of those devices and services. However, in the more recent hearing, they also stated that they would not recommend that private citizens use those products or services, either.
“We’re deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don’t share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks,” explained Chris Wray, director of the FBI. He went on to say that if people use those devices and services, it gives companies from outside the country “the capacity to exert pressure or control over our telecommunications infrastructure.”
He also said that buying Huawei smartphones could make it possible for other countries to “maliciously modify or steal information.”
