Phone Alert for Athletes Traveling from the USA to China

USA has taken privacy matters to the next level. It is such a size that he asked his athletes who will compete in the Olympics not to use their personal phones. You may say, ‘What’s the matter?’, but it is possible to give a little meaning when you read it.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic committee said that its athletes who will compete at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics should not use their personal phones. Instead, athletes were instructed to use disposable phones when they went to China. The reason is significant.

“Every device, communication, transaction and online activities can be monitored”

The committee’s bulletin explains the committee’s warning to athletes: “Every device can be monitored for your communications, transactions, and online activities. Your device or devices could even be infected with malware, which could have a negative impact in the future”. The United States is not the only country that has warned its athletes to use disposable phones at the Beijing Winter Olympics. According to the news, Canada and the Netherlands also told their athletes the same thing.

As a matter of fact, the Committee’s concern is not unfounded. In 2019, China was caught secretly installing spyware on tourists’ phones without permission. Tourists entering from Xinjiang, an autonomous province in northwest China, noticed something strange on their phones when they returned to their country and learned that they were dealing with spyware.

The Xinjiang region, which is under intense surveillance, is a predominantly Muslim minority Uyghur, which China has subjected to imprisonment and torture. In addition, the Citizen Lab research team found that China’s My2022 Olympic app, which all participants must install, is full of security vulnerabilities that could lead to privacy breaches, monitoring and hacking.