Caution: Install spy app on tourists ' phones

You must take good care of his phone. if you need a trip to China with the aircraft.

A collaboration between several international media can reveal that security guards in at least one major international airport in China secretly install a overvågningsapp on tourists ' phones when they land on chinese ground.

There is talk about the airport in China's western region of Xinjiang, where approximately 100 million people annually travel to. The unveiling is a collaboration between The Guardian, Süddeutsche Zeitung and the New York Times.

the Media has for a long time studied how tourists travel, especially from the neighboring country, Kyrgyzstan, have taken their phones at security.

install the airport security personnel a particular application on the phone, which gives the authorities access to personal data, including emails, text messages and contact information.

Edin Omanovic from the company by Privacy International calls the unveiling of the extremely worrying.

- There is talk about a country where you can smoke directly in a labour camp, if you download a wrong app, or news article, he warns.

It is unknown, how the information is being downloaded from the tourists ' phones, are being stored and for what purpose they are being used.

There is also no evidence that chinese authorities collect data from travellers, when they have left China, but several tourists have, however, found the app on their phones after returning home.

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It is the app extremely to the right, which will be installed on tourists ' phones. Photo: Ritzau Scanpix
Had misgivings
The british media The Guardian has spoken with several travelers in Xinjiang-the region's airport, Urumqi International Airport, which is shocked to find surveillance equipment on their phones.

A traveler from the neighboring country of Kyrgyzstan says that he was warned by his party that his telephone would be taken by the mandatory security checks, and that he could expect that one would probably try to open it.

- I just thought that maybe they would put a GPS system in my phone, says man who doesn't want to get his name forward.

Seniorresearcher by Human Rights Watch, Maya Wang says that the have long been known that the chinese authorities monitor the tourists in this way.

- we are quite aware of. We believe that it is not only chinese who are subjected to this illegal surveillance, but also international travelers.

Chinese authorities do not want to comment on the matter for The Guardian.