US probing Chinese telecom cos over risks to American data privacy

The Biden administration is investigating China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom over concerns the firms could exploit access to American data through their US cloud and internet businesses by providing it to Beijing, three sources familiar with the matter said.

The companies still have a small presence in the United States, for example, providing cloud services and routing wholesale US internet traffic. That gives them access to Americans’ data even after telecom regulators barred them from providing telephone and retail internet services in the United States.