A client recently asked if they should be comfortable purchasing a router made by Huawei, the Chinese conglomerate. If the name is familiar, you are probably remembering the many headlines from a few years ago where western governments were attempting to block Huawei’s business due to close ties with the Chinese Communist party (and even arrested the CEO’s daughter in 2019). In this client’s case they had little choice but to use the Huawei router required by their ISP, or find an alternate internet provider. The concern with using Huawei equipment, or any foreign-made technology, is that the foreign government could be covertly analyzing our traffic or even installing a digital “kill switch” in the event of a real war. It’s hard to know what is hyped-up fiction and what is really happening behind closed doors. Personally, I prefer to purchase from US companies or foreign companies with a large US presence (and therefore fall under US legal jurisdiction). But don’t forget that even tech equipment made by US companies is virtually guaranteed to have some components manufactured by foreign firms. In the end, we as consumers really just have two tools at our disposal: where we spend our money, and pressuring our elected officials.
