The Chinese government is forcing some of its ethnic minorities to install a spyware app on their smartphones to monitor their activities, while law enforcement officials are warning that those who don't comply will be detained for a space which will reach all 10 days.
The initiative started in Xinjiang in the west China, when authorities began sending messages via WeChat to Urumqi residents, requiring smartphone users to install an Android app called Jingwang. THE role of implementation is monitoring users for possible "terrorist acts, illegal religious videos, e-books and e-documents."
Most of the inhabitants of this area belong to the Muslim minority, according to local media, and the message is broadcast on both Mandarin and Uyghur. The latter is the language spoken by the Uighur group, whose population lists 8 millions of people.
The message includes a code QR to make it easier for users to download the spyware application, along with a warning that those who don't install it will be detained for up to 10 days.
Authorities have warned that sample checks will be carried out in the coming weeks to ensure that everyone has an installed application and that no content that violates the law is stored. If the application is running and found content that violates the law, users should delete it.
The application can spy on almost all of the activities on the phone, recorded data, such as WeChat and Weibo talks, two of the most popular communication platforms in China.
Information, such as data Wi-Fi, IMEI data and SIM card data, are automatically collected and transferred to a government server, along with information for media files stored on the device that are checked by digital content signatures to determine whether they violate the law, or are linked to any terrorist activity.
Mobile espionage efforts seem to be targeting devices only Android at the moment, but iOS works on less than 10% of devices in China. Maybe later we will hear this news…
