Exposed! China installs spyware on visitors’ Android, downloads data from iPhones

People visiting China should proceed with caution. A new report from Vice has revealed that foreigners who are visiting certain parts of China are seeing their smartphones searched at the border. On Android handsets, authorities in certain parts of China are installing spyware that gains access to a user’s calendar, phone logs, contacts, and even text messages. They even go so far to gain access to users’ apps that contain usernames.

On iOS, since the protection is a bit better, they don’t acquire the same liberties so they take a different approach. On iPhones, border officials use certain tools to download data. Vice states, “The Süddeutsche Zeitung reporter said they saw machines that appeared to be for searching iPhones at the border.” They make use of equipment something similar to Cellbrite’s Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) that allow most data to be downloaded from iPhones.