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MI6 head thanks Beijing for ‘free publicity’
A Chinese parody of the ‘James Bond’ series mocking western intel agencies was noticed by the UK’s spy chief
MI6 head Richard Moore tipped his hat to Chinese state media for giving his agency “free publicity,” after Xinhua News produced a satirical video poking fun at London and Washington’s intelligence services.
Entitled ‘No Time to Die Laughing,’ the oddball ‘James Bond’ mock-up centers on two ‘MI6’ spies – Agents 0.07 and 0.06 – who are seen discussing the agency’s fixation on China as a “top priority” over a sitcom-like laugh track. Responding to the “leaked video” on Thursday after it was posted by Xinhua, Moore thanked the outlet for its “interest” in the MI6, as well as “the unexpected free publicity.”
Thank you for your interest (and the unexpected free publicity!). For those able to access the link, you can read the full speech here: https://t.co/sXZiTMzJc4
— Richard Moore (@ChiefMI6) January 5, 2022
Moore also shared a link to a hawkish speech he delivered at the International Institute for Strategic Studies last November, in which he dubbed Beijing the “single greatest priority” for the spy agency, apparently giving inspiration for the satire.
“This is not just about being able to understand China and Chinese decision making. We need to be able to operate undetected as a secret intelligence agency everywhere within the worldwide surveillance web,” Moore argued at the time, blasting Beijing as an “authoritarian state” with “different values from ours.”
First published earlier this week, the clip also takes shots at the United States, playfully highlighting the global spying apparatus created by its National Security Agency (NSA), as well as the harsh treatment of whistleblowers and journalists like Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. Of Washington’s 17 major intelligence outfits, none have yet acknowledged the video or thanked China for the limelight as Moore did.
READ MORE: China accuses MI6 chief of pushing ‘fake news’
The parody goes on to defend Chinese telecom Huawei from allegations that it surveils its customers using secret “back doors,” with ‘Agent 0.06’ calling the idea “nonsense.” While former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien previously claimed Washington has evidence that Huawei can “access sensitive and personal information” on user’s devices, he made none of it public, and US officials have declined to say whether they have ever observed the company using the alleged back door.
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Google & Facebook fined for spying on users
A French privacy watchdog accused the tech giants of making it difficult for users to opt out of tracking their activity
France’s online privacy regulator has ordered Google and Facebook to cough up some €210 million ($237 million) between them, fining the firms for their questionable use of data-tracking ‘cookies’ on their sites.
The French National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL) announced the move in a statement on Thursday, saying Google will be made to pay €150 million and Facebook another €60 million within a period of three months, or else face additional fines of €100,000 per day.
The commission said the way the companies employ ‘cookies’ – or small amounts of data generated while users browse websites that can be used to track their activity – “affects the freedom of consent,” as Facebook and Google make it much easier for netizens to authorize that data-tracking than to decline it.
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“When you accept cookies, it’s done in just one click,” said Karin Kiefer, who leads the commission’s data protection and sanctions team. “Rejecting cookies should be as easy as accepting them.”
The watchdog org added that those practices violated the French Data Protection Act, and ordered the companies to “provide Internet users located in France with a means of refusing cookies as simple as the existing means of accepting them, in order to guarantee their freedom of consent.”
Both Google and Facebook issued statements vowing to work with French authorities to sort the issue, though the latter firm insisted its “cookie consent controls provide people with greater control over their data,” disputing the consent issues raised by the CNIL. Google, too, argued that “people trust us to respect their right to privacy and keep them safe,” but nonetheless said it would pursue “further changes” to comply with the order.