The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (US) has asked its athletes not to use personal cellphones while competing at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China next month. Instead, they are advised to use a burner phone or cell phone burner aka disposable cellphones.
In spy movies, intelligence services or crime thrillers, it's often shown that someone throws their cell phone away after using it. Burner phones are usually very cheap old fashioned feature phones that can only be used for phone calls and sending text messages.
This device is not intended for long-term use. Burner phones are usually equipped with a prepaid SIM card with credit (pulse) loaded into it. After the credit runs out, we can throw it away, depending on how long we want to use the device.
This fairly extreme step was taken by the US to protect its athletes from being eavesdropped. They are concerned about the strict surveillance imposed by the Chinese government and anticipate malicious software infiltrating athletes' devices.
The warning was previously issued twice last year to warn athletes about the possibility of monitoring digital activity while in China.
"Every device, communication, transaction, and online activity can be monitored. Your device may also be compromised with malicious software that could negatively impact future use of the device," the warning reads as quoted by The Verge.
Another source quoted from the Wall Street Journal said that not only the US has conveyed this to its athletes, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands have also warned athletes not to bring their personal electronics into the country.
The Olympic and Paralympic Committee's concerns are not without reason. In 2019, it was reported that China was caught secretly installing spyware on the cellphones of tourists entering from the Xinjiang region. This closely watched area is inhabited by the Uyghurs.
In addition, research group Citizen Lab found that China's My2022 Olympics app, which all Olympic and Paralympic participants must install, is riddled with security holes that can lead to privacy breaches, surveillance and hacking.
Flashback to when Beijing hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, the US Department of Homeland Security issued a similar warning to any travelers visiting China, warning that carrying any device could potentially put them at risk of unauthorized access and data theft by government, criminal or foreign elements. .
However, this time around the Olympics is a little different, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, athletes will likely rely heavily on their mobile devices to stay in touch with friends and family. This will be more complicated to do with a burner phone that comes with cellular data, SMS, and call limits.
But even if Olympic athletes want to use their burner phones to surf the internet, they may still not be free to access the internet as China is known to severely restrict the internet.
During the 2008 Olympics, China promised to provide unlimited internet access to spectators, journalists and athletes. To note, the country known as The Great Firewall of China blocks a number of popular websites such as Google, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Netflix, and many more.
However, China appears not to have kept its promises. Many journalists report that they are still unable to access certain websites, including the BBC China, a number of Hong Kong newspapers, as well as the website of the human rights organization Amnesty International.
In response to the warnings that the US has given its athletes this time, China has once again said it will provide athletes and journalists with uncensored internet access. But it's not clear if the country will still block certain sites.
