Chinese police now installs surveillance software on tourists' phones

China’s security policy is known to be all kinds of shady. The country has been involved in a series of strong-arming debacles that attempt to shackle its citizens’ right to information and privacy. That isn’t where it all ends, though, as a traveling couple has reported that Chinese border security installed software on their Android devices during their trip into the country.

According to the first-hand source, /u/BigTyPB on Reddit, on his trip to the country,  he and his wife were stopped at the border and had suspicious software installed on their Android devices—a Huawei Mate 9 and Moto X4. Exactly what was installed remains unknown but we’d place our bets on it being some sort of surveillance software that sends data back to a government-controlled archive. 

Of course, being Android, there are a number of ways to get rid of whatever intrusive software was installed. There’s the option of installing a firewall or data monitoring app to figure out what app is sending data and to where. You can also just do a complete OS wipe and reinstall. Or better still, leave your daily drivers at home when traveling abroad; burner phones do just fine.