Banning Huawei threatens US National Security, says Google

Google has reportedly warned the Trump administration that banning Huawei will not bode well for US national security, as per a report by Financial Times.

The main argument put forward by the software giant was that because of the ban Google will not be able to provide proper security updates and operating system updates to Huawei which will force the Chinese company to develop its hybrid version of Android, “Hongmeng”. According to Google executives, this new Chinese version would be much more prone to hack attacks and “more at risk of being hacked, not least by China.”

Following the recent ban on Huawei by the Trump administration, Google has been one of the main companies that have also suffered a heavy loss because of losing their major client. As of now, the company has provided a short term three-month temporary license to the Chinese company. As per the argument presented by Financial Times, Google is worried that Huawei will create its own version of Android which will no longer have any of Google’s services. Part of those Google services and perhaps the most crucial factor is “Google Play Protect” software which automatically scans for malware, viruses and security threats. Another problem that troubles Google is that consumers who purchase phones with Google services already have some Google apps pre-installed which are more rigorously checked for security and will be much more secure than any of Huawei’s pre-installed apps on its new OS.

Furthermore, since Huawei is already banned from selling its smartphones in USA, it will create a forked version of Android and will sell it in non-US markets. Since Huawei already has a huge market share especially in Asia and in some parts of Europe, a lot of people will run Huawei’s OS which will be more prone to Hack attacks and security flaws.

Whether Google will be able to persuade the Trump administration, the coming days will tell us, however, if things don’t go according to Google’s plan then Huawei might roll out its own version of Android sooner rather than later. As per a report by Bloomberg, Huawei has stated that “it has not negotiated directly with the US government and is waiting to see how Google talks evolve.”