Heather Zeiger

Heather Zeiger is a freelance science writer in Dallas, TX. She has advanced degrees in chemistry and bioethics and writes on the intersection of science, technology, and society. She also serves as a research analyst with The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity. She is the co-editor of a forthcoming book Overtreatment of the Frail Elderly: A Transatlantic Conversation (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2025).

Archives

DeepSeek: Honing In on the Challenges It Presents

Although the program is admirably streamlined, censorship, data breaches, copyright violation, and lack of guardrails are among the most prominent challenges
Heather Zeiger
February 10, 2025
The distillation technique that DeepSeek apparently uses to poach OpenAI’s database results, over time, in a loss of information on the internet.

Is Your Online Data for Sale? The Tik Tok Hearings May Shed Light

To enable total state surveillance, telecom companies in China, for example, must supply data that can include everything from bank accounts to keystrokes
Heather Zeiger
January 13, 2025
The data that China-based companies collect may be sold on the black market by employees who make much less than average tech wages elsewhere.

Last Year Saw the Worst Telecom Hack in Our Nation’s History

While millions of Americans’ metadata were compromised, the specific targets seem to be important political figures and people of interest to the Chinese government
Heather Zeiger
December 11, 2024
Who is responsible for allowing the Salt Typhoon hack to go on so long and infiltrate so deeply? Government and telecoms currently blame each other.

Silicon Valley’s Trendy Ethic: Effective Altruism

How effective is it really? Does the underlying utilitarianism leave out some important things?
Heather Zeiger
September 30, 2024
Effective altruism is a kind of therapy, a type of self-help for the angst-ridden techno-elites trying to grapple with human suffering and limitations.

We’re Slowly Learning About China’s Extensive Hacking Network

China’s state-backed hackers have embedded malware within U.S. programs used to manage clean drinking water, the power grid, and air traffic, among others
Heather Zeiger
March 7, 2024
Hackers’ advantage: One of the biggest security weaknesses in U.S. digital networks and infrastructure is out-of-date, no-longer-supported technology.

China, Cybertheft, and the Ethics of Espionage

All nations spy, but espionage crosses a moral line when it costs normal civilians their jobs.
Heather Zeiger
November 15, 2023
All nations spy, but espionage crosses a moral line when it costs normal civilians their jobs, stifles innovation, and infringes rights and liberties.

The Chinese Spy Balloon Saga, Part 2

China continues to deny that the balloon was used for spying on military bases
Heather Zeiger
February 22, 2023
The U.S. has shot down four aerial objects this month, one of which was a Chinese surveillance balloon that had traversed the U.S. from Idaho to the Atlantic Ocean. Part 1 of Mind Matters Spy Balloon Saga provides an overview of the four aerial objects that were shot down. Since then, several media outlets found additional information on China’s global high-altitude balloon program, including that the balloon shot down in the Atlantic likely launched from Hainan Island and was intended to surveil U.S. Pacific military bases in Guam and Hawaii. The balloon inadvertently traversed into the continental U.S. Here is a rundown of what of several media outlets have reported: There are 2 known launch sites in China: Dorbod Banner (Inner Mongolia) and Hainan Island One of China’s …

The Chinese Spy Balloon Saga (Part 1)

China may be playing a psychological game with the United States
Heather Zeiger
February 15, 2023
On February 4, the U.S. shot down a Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina. The balloon was first spotted on January 28 over the Aleutian Islands, and then traveled over Alaska, through Canada, and then into Idaho. Chinese spokespersons maintained that it was a meteorological research balloon that had veered off-course. However, recovery crews confirmed that the balloon platform was equipped with communication surveillance and interception tools. Since then, three other aerial objects, all flown within the vicinity of sensitive U.S. military sites, have been shot down. The other three are not confirmed to be of Chinese origin and have not been identified as surveillance balloons. NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense …

Life After Zero-Covid: Protesters Are Rounded Up

The way Beijing lifted its zero-Covid measures was just as unethical as the zero-Covid measures themselves
Heather Zeiger
January 23, 2023
In response to widespread protests and a slumping economy, the Chinese Communist Party abruptly reversed its zero-Covid policies. Rather than taking responsibility for bad policy, however, Beijing instead left a scared and immunologically vulnerable populous to fend for itself in a country with an inadequate healthcare structure. Analysts have said that rather than using the lockdowns as an opportunity to fortify its healthcare system, which has been inadequate to serve China’s large population even before the coronavirus, Beijing doubled down on state and local surveillance. In the next couple of articles, we will look at the aftermath of Beijing’s zero-Covid policy, a policy that General Secretary Xi Jinping has used to justify the superiority of China’s socialist system over …

China: Protesters Evade Censors and Confront State Surveillance

Chinese citizens are known for their clever plays on words to evade social media censors.
Heather Zeiger
December 23, 2022
The graffiti on the bathroom wall at the university said there would be a gathering in honor of the people who had died in an apartment fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang. Bathrooms usually do not have surveillance cameras, so this announcement would probably go unnoticed by censors. It is better than risking punishment by posting on social media. In another city, Chinese citizens discretely shared information about the location of a vigil for the Urumqi victims on WeChat in the guise of dinner plans. Image Credit: TheVisualsYouNeed - Adobe Stock A number of people died in the fire, whose toll was likely inflated because emergency vehicles were unable to access the building due to zero-Covid measures. Social media posts showed doors that were barred shut and barricades blocked entry to the …

When the Chinese Had Had Enough, Their Government Had To Listen

Embarrassingly, Xi had already declared victory over the virus in 2020, touting authoritarian governments as better able to respond
Heather Zeiger
December 12, 2022
“The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and means can never be considered in isolation from their purpose.” (von Clausewitz, On War) Beijing’s zero-Covid policy was not sustainable. The highly publicized events in October and November in Urumqi, Xinjiang and at the Zhengzhou Foxconn factory served as the inciting events for what became a nationwide call for ending zero-Covid, giving people their freedoms — and there were even calls for Xi Jinping to step down. In the course of a week, Beijing went from touting zero-Covid to easing restrictions to censoring mentions of zero-Covid policy online. In November in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, several residents, including four children, died in an apartment fire because emergency …

China: Massive Protests at Cell Phone Plant Continue

One accusation against Apple is that it has consistently failed to live up to its responsibilities as a global leader at the top of the supply chain.
Heather Zeiger
November 28, 2022
At the Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou where thousands of employees walked out on October 29, protests broke out on November 23. They were led by new hires staying on a campus dormitory after they learned that they would have to work an additional two months at lower pay before they receive their promised bonuses for coming to Foxconn to cover for the October exodus. Additionally, workers complained of inadequate food and fear of Covid exposure. Workers were offered 25,000 yuan (US$3,500) for two months of work, a 50% increase on the posted maximum wage. When they learned of changes in their agreement, employees at the dorm responded by pulling down outdoor tents (for Covid testing) and destroying a surveillance camera. Police dressed in PPE (personal protection gear) some from other …

China’s Foxconn Walkout: How Fear Messaging Can Backfire

Workers were caught in a conflict between unrealistic COVID Zero messaging from the government and seasonal performance demands from the employer
Heather Zeiger
November 21, 2022
Around this time of year, the factories that produce Apple’s iPhones hire thousands of additional workers to meet the demand for the holiday season. While Apple is an American company and the electronics are designed in-house, the manufacturing is done overseas where labor costs are cheaper. One of the largest manufacturers for Apple’s iPhone products is Hon Hai Technology Group, better known as Foxconn, a Taiwan-based company with factories in several countries, including mainland China. One of its largest facilities is in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province — dubbed “iPhone City” by the locals. Thus the Zhengzhou Foxconn factory was slated to make 80% of the iPhone 14 models and 85% of the iPhone Pro models before the end of this year. However, due to China’s …