FBI warns against using Chinese mobile apps due to privacy risks

The FBI issued a public service announcement warning that many foreign-developed mobile apps—especially those maintained by Chinese companies—may continuously collect extensive personal data, store it on servers in China, and be subject to Chinese national security laws that could enable government access; the advisory details the data-collection behaviors, storage practices, and consent issues. It recommends turning off unnecessary data sharing, keeping devices updated, downloading apps only from official stores, using password managers, and reporting suspicious activity or compromises to the FBI’s IC3 portal, and references TikTok’s 2026 divestiture as context.