Sept. 15 marked the deadline for Việt Nam’s citizens to claim their “Independence Day gift,” a high-profile and unprecedented national “tax rebate” campaign. Beyond the logistics of the distribution, however, the campaign’s motives warrant scrutiny, particularly in light of a recent, catastrophic data breach at the National Credit Information Center (CIC). The leak of over 160 million financial and credit records—roughly equivalent to Việt Nam’s entire population data—has made the public deeply wary of data security.

This is especially relevant as the gift campaign was facilitated through the VNeID app, a cornerstone of the state’s project to collect, store, and digitize citizen data. The situation raises critical questions: Is this a push toward mass surveillance? Is Việt Nam adopting a model from China? And what doubts does the CIC breach raise regarding the country’s capacity to ensure data safety?