Olympics Athletes and Visitors Advised to Use Burner Phones in Beijing

The 2022 Winter Olympics is being held in China’s capital, Beijing. It’s not all fun and games, however; multiple countries have advised travelers to China to use a burner phone during their stay.

The reason has to do with China’s COVID-19 precautions. In an effort to stop the spread of the Omicron variant, the country will use an app called My2022 to monitor cases and conduct contact tracing. However, countries from the US, UK, Canada, and the Netherlands, have expressed extreme security concerns with the app, citing its ability to be used for mass surveillance.

These concerns are backed by a security firm called Citizen Lab, which points out the absence of encryption in My2022 makes it a target for hacking and potential wiretapping. Since the Chinese government has failed to address these security concerns, Citizen Lab recommends athletes and visitors to not use the app, rather to use a burner phone with a new email address while in Beijing.

Photo by Bryan Turner on Unsplash