There’s convincing evidence that prominent tech manufacture Huawei is launching its own search engine soon, which would be a frightening prospect based on recent news surrounding the company. Huawei’s struggle to earn public trust has been a continuing story as its relationship with western governments erodes over time.

Huawei search would presumably function as a replacement for Google’s suite of services, which were removed from Huawei phones in 2019. The absence of Google services is one result of the US government blacklisting Huawei due to trade battles with China and mounting security concerns. Since then, Huawei has released phones without the Google Play store’s apps, and with a modified version of open-source Android. With its status as the second best-selling phone manufacturer in the world (ahead of Apple but behind Samsung), Huawei’s potential search tool would have a massive user base.

Evidence of an imminent Huawei search app comes from a Reddit post, according to XDA Developers. The post describes a closed beta test version of the search app and the news that Huawei is recruiting testers. It’s reportedly a more basic tool than Google’s, providing search functions and a handful of other expected services like a weather tracker and a sports shortcut. Users report being unable to verify which software powers the search engine (they typically run Microsoft’s Bing, Yahoo, or Google) but the privacy statement suggests there’s an option to be delisted from search results, and such an option would only be likely to exist on a proprietary engine.

The focal point of the world’s privacy concerns with respect to Huawei is that the government of mainland China requires Chinese businesses to share data with their government. Aside from publicly stating that it is not using backdoors to spy on American users of Huawei’s products, the company hasn’t done much to assure the US or other countries that it isn’t abusing user data. People generally underestimate the amount of personal information a search engine can store. User data such as lifestyle, physical wellness, shopping habits, family members, and much more can be easily deduced based on search patterns alone. It’s understandable to feel trepidation over providing that sort of information to a company with a questionable history of respect for privacy.

At the same time, it’s difficult to take the stance of the US government at face value as well. One reason is the ongoing trade war between the US and China, which some Americans view as political grandstanding rather than an honest attempt to strengthen the US’s business relations. Reports from US intelligence show Huawei’s devices have the capability of compromising private data, but there’s been no public proof that any of these potential backdoors have been used. It’s possible that the recent racketeering charges the US has levied against the company could lend some transparency to these and similar allegations, but there’s still not enough concrete, public information for consumers to truly make an informed decision. If these privacy issues with Huawei are proven accurate, the idea of one of the largest tech corporations in the world running its own search engine becomes a cause for major concern.

Next: Huawei 5G Security Backdoors Confirmed Says US Government Agency

Source: XDA Developers