Chinese border guards installing spyware on tourists’ phones

App extracts information and searches for material as visitors enter ‘police state’ Xinjiang

Xinjiang
Children play in the street in China’s Xinjiang region, one of the most policed places in the world
(Image credit: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Border police in China are secretly installing surveillance apps on the phones of visitors and downloading personal information, according to a joint investigation by news organisations.

They says the apps are being installed at the borders of the western Xinjiang region, where authorities are accused of setting up internment camps, as part of a huge surveillance campaign against Uighur Muslims.

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