Chinese Border Guards Force Tourists To Put Surveillance App On Their Cell Phones

Chinese officials use an app called IJOP, Integrated Joint Operations Platform, to surveil citizens. Human Rights Watch/YouTube

Business Insider: Chinese officials are forcing tourists to install an invasive app that downloads their texts and scans their phones at the border of one of the most surveilled regions in the country

* Chinese officials are forcing tourists visiting the Xinjiang region to install a malware app on their phones at its border, according to a joint report from Motherboard, Süddeutsche Zeitung, The Guardian, The New York Times, and NDR.
* The malware reportedly seizes all the text messages on a phone and scans for a variety of files linked to Islam, including extremist content, academic research, and music.
* Officials in Xinjiang use invasive technology to monitor the Uighurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority living in the region.

Tourists entering China's Xinjiang region are reportedly being forced to install an app that downloads all of their phone's text messages, contacts, and calendar information, and scans the device for files related to Islam.

According to a joint report from Motherboard, Süddeutsche Zeitung, The Guardian, The New York Times, and NDR, officials are using the data in their campaign to surveil the activities of a primarily Muslim ethnic group in Xinjiang called the Uighurs.

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More News On Chinese Border Guards Forcing Tourists To Put Surveillance App On Their Cell Phones

Chinese border guards put secret surveillance app on tourists' phones -- The Guardian
China Is Forcing Tourists to Install Text-Stealing Malware at its Border -- VICE
China installing surveillance apps on travelers' phones: reports -- The Hill
China has been secretly installing spyware on some tourists’ Android phones -- The Verge
Chinese border guards are putting a surveillance app on tourists’ phones -- MIT Technology Review