Olympic athletes told to leave phones at home to dodge spying
Jamie Tarabay and Sarah Zheng, Bloomberg News
Beyond omicron and gold medal tallies, athletes arriving in China’s capital for the Winter Games next month may have one more thing to worry about: Is it safe to access the internet?
Beijing has promised the world’s top athletes access to a partially unfettered internet during the Olympics starting Feb. 4, dropping the Great Firewall that blocks services like Facebook and YouTube at official venues and hotels. But security experts say there are reasons to exercise caution.
Chinese companies that specialize in data collection, surveillance and artificial intelligence are among the official sponsors and suppliers for the Winter Olympics. Washington and its allies have accused some of the corporations providing networking and data management, including Huawei Technologies Co. and Iflytek Co., of potentially being used for espionage or surveillance of minorities in Xinjiang. Huawei and its peers deny those allegations, but cybersecurity consultants warn that those systems will subject athletes to the same kind of surveillance, movement tracking and monitoring that most Chinese citizens deal with.
Among the concerns is the risk that state actors or criminals could use the designated Wi-Fi bubbles to snoop on private communications or even install malware and other vulnerabilities onto personal devices. That could in turn open up contacts — both sporting and political — to subsequent attack.
A growing number of delegations are taking that potential threat seriously. Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands and Canada are among the delegations that are advising athletes to keep their devices off Wi-Fi networks and use burner phones if possible. And the U.S. has issued a warning to American athletes that their devices may also be compromised with malicious software, with unknown consequences for future use.
“My advice to athletes would be to go buy a cheap second phone and don’t use your principal iPhone or Android system,” said Larry Diamond, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. “We don’t know where this is headed. The only thing we know is that China is constructing the most sophisticated authoritarian digital surveillance state, and I don’t think people should be blasé in taking their equipment to interact with that.”
The Beijing committee has rejected the reported advice given to athletes, saying, “This is completely groundless and these concerns are wholly unnecessary.” The committee said China had passed several cybersecurity laws that provided protections for privacy and data security for its citizens and foreign visitors.
China’s government blocks swaths of the internet to maintain control over public discourse at home. Its dropping that blockade as part of a pledge to put on a “simple, safe and splendid” games — an opportunity for the country to showcase its rising economic and political prowess.
But its alleged track record of drafting companies in widespread surveillance, such as by keeping tabs on minorities in Xinjiang, has raised alarm bells. Athletes with global profiles represent high-value targets for cyberspies and bad actors and may be opening their devices up to long-term tracking, Diamond said.
It’s a risk because of “the broad data collection culture associated with surveillance in China,” said David Robinson, co-founder of cybersecurity company Internet 2.0. “If athletes do not want the Chinese government to be able to identify their normal phone, then using a new phone will shield the collection of sensitive data.”
One of the 5G technology suppliers is Huawei, the company blacklisted by the U.S. and others that lies at the heart of growing Washington-Beijing tensions. That’s in cooperation with official telecommunication provider China Unicom Beijing, whose parent is on the Treasury Department’s list of sanctioned Chinese military-industrial complex companies. Another is Iflytek, the exclusive supplier of automatic speech transcription, which was added to a U.S. blacklist in 2019 — prohibiting the sale of American technology without approval — for involvement in human rights abuses in Xinjiang. It will use artificial intelligence and big data “to provide real-time analysis and resource allocation” for Olympics-related facilities and events, Iflytek said on its website.
The games’ official anti-virus software provider, Qi An Xin, will run a central hub offering “full coverage and high-quality network security,” the company said in a statement. Its majority shareholder, Qi Xiangdong, is a co-founder of Qihoo 360, sanctioned in 2020. Qi An Xin will have visibility over data that crosses the network — including overseas traffic, said Robinson. In an analysis of Qi An Xin’s mobile protection software, Internet 2.0 reported that “a significant amount of user data is being collected by the software.” Qi Xiangdong parted ways with Qihoo 360 in 2019.
Representatives for Huawei and Iflytek didn’t respond to requests for comment. Qi An Xin said it has no shareholder or business relationship with Qihoo and deferred requests for information to Beijing’s Olympic committee.
Another company, Kingsoft Office Software, is supplying office software for the Games, according to its website. The company was one of those targeted in an executive order by former President Donald Trump in 2021, when he banned U.S. transactions with several Chinese applications including WeChat Pay and Alipay, over concerns of mass collection of personal data. The order was revoked months later by President Joe Biden, who instead ordered a review into the national security risks of the apps.
A representative for Kingsoft didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Some countries have already taken precautions. Australia will provide its own Wi-Fi “in areas allocated to us which is being provided by our IT branch,” an Australian Olympic Committee spokesperson said. Belgium has recommended that their athletes not bring personal electronic devices to China.
Dutch athletes have received similar warnings. And Team Canada members have been reminded that the games “present a unique opportunity for cybercrime,” the Canadian Olympic Committee said in a statement. It too is recommending its athletes leave personal devices at home and to limit the personal information stored on devices they bring to China.
“In regards to the so-called national security questions regarding Huawei, Iflytek and other tech companies, China’s relevant departments have already repeatedly refuted this issue, but the U.S. has continued to use this as a pretense to suppress Chinese high-tech companies,” the Beijing committee said in an email. “This kind of bullying is bound to be increasingly resisted and opposed by the international community.”
2021 sports year in review: The year Simone Biles taught us it’s OK to not be OK
Joshua Paul
It's a long list of rejections from cities across Europe. Oslo and Stockholm are the two high-profile cities that pulled out during the bidding process. Krakow, Poland, and Lviv, Ukraine, also withdrew bids.
Two other areas with potentially strong bids — St. Moritz, Switzerland, and Munich — were rejected by the public in voter referendums. The German rejection was a stinging blow to Bach, who is from Germany. It's also notable that the IOC headquarters are in Switzerland.
Oslo and Stockholm, probably regarded as the preferred venues as the IOC attempted to return the Olympics to traditional European winter venues, pulled out because of costs and politics.
Norwegian and IOC officials also traded public barbs in 2014 about their dissatisfaction with each other.
Details of the IOC's demands upon bid cities for its members — including a cocktail reception with the King of Norway, use of exclusive road lanes, and specific requests for fruit and cakes in hotel rooms — were leaked, and described as “pompousness” by one lawmaker.
A senior IOC official retorted the decision to withdraw Oslo was based on “half-truths and factual inaccuracies.”
Bach acknowledged at the time in a 2014 interview that the Winter Olympics were a tough sell.
“The number of candidates for winter is already very limited by geography,” he said. “Also we can’t forget that this is a challenging time with regard to the world economy.”
Joshua Paul
It's a long list of rejections from cities across Europe. Oslo and Stockholm are the two high-profile cities that pulled out during the bidding process. Krakow, Poland, and Lviv, Ukraine, also withdrew bids.
Two other areas with potentially strong bids — St. Moritz, Switzerland, and Munich — were rejected by the public in voter referendums. The German rejection was a stinging blow to Bach, who is from Germany. It's also notable that the IOC headquarters are in Switzerland.
Oslo and Stockholm, probably regarded as the preferred venues as the IOC attempted to return the Olympics to traditional European winter venues, pulled out because of costs and politics.
Norwegian and IOC officials also traded public barbs in 2014 about their dissatisfaction with each other.
Details of the IOC's demands upon bid cities for its members — including a cocktail reception with the King of Norway, use of exclusive road lanes, and specific requests for fruit and cakes in hotel rooms — were leaked, and described as “pompousness” by one lawmaker.
A senior IOC official retorted the decision to withdraw Oslo was based on “half-truths and factual inaccuracies.”
Bach acknowledged at the time in a 2014 interview that the Winter Olympics were a tough sell.
“The number of candidates for winter is already very limited by geography,” he said. “Also we can’t forget that this is a challenging time with regard to the world economy.”
2021 sports year in review: The year Simone Biles taught us it’s OK to not be OK
Mark Schiefelbein
The choice for the IOC members came down to two authoritarian governments that did not require any public vote, and also had few constraints on spending: Beijing and Almaty.
Beijing spent more than $40 billion on the 2008 Summer Olympics.
In promoting their proposals, organizers in Almaty at the time said 79% supported the bid. Beijing said 94.8% in China were in favor.
Almaty tried to win the vote, reminding that it was a winter sports city surrounded by mountains and natural snow. It was a dig at Beijing, which has no winter sports tradition and little natural snow in the areas picked for skiing.
Beijing and some IOC members countered that skiers actually prefer artificial snow. The IOC also saw Beijing as a huge winter-sports business opportunity.
Beijing won by four votes, which was described as much closer than expected, in a second attempt using paper ballots. A first attempt at electronic voting was scrapped citing technical issues.
IOC members chose what they believed to be the less risky option, which has not turned out that way.
“It really is a safe choice,” IOC President Bach said at the time. “We know China will deliver on its promises.”
The choice for the IOC members came down to two authoritarian governments that did not require any public vote, and also had few constraints on spending: Beijing and Almaty.
Beijing spent more than $40 billion on the 2008 Summer Olympics.
In promoting their proposals, organizers in Almaty at the time said 79% supported the bid. Beijing said 94.8% in China were in favor.
Almaty tried to win the vote, reminding that it was a winter sports city surrounded by mountains and natural snow. It was a dig at Beijing, which has no winter sports tradition and little natural snow in the areas picked for skiing.
Beijing and some IOC members countered that skiers actually prefer artificial snow. The IOC also saw Beijing as a huge winter-sports business opportunity.
Beijing won by four votes, which was described as much closer than expected, in a second attempt using paper ballots. A first attempt at electronic voting was scrapped citing technical issues.
IOC members chose what they believed to be the less risky option, which has not turned out that way.
“It really is a safe choice,” IOC President Bach said at the time. “We know China will deliver on its promises.”
2021 sports year in review: The year Simone Biles taught us it’s OK to not be OK
Bullit Marquez
Getting down to two candidates — neither the top choices — shocked the IOC. It was part of the reason that the IOC no longer goes through a long bid process to pick host cities. Bach said at the time that the bid process produced too many “losers."
Moreover, it was embarrassing for the IOC to explain why voters turned down holding the Olympics — particularly the smaller Winter Games. The bid process was also soiled by scandals surrounding the awarding of the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics, in which IOC member were allegedly bribed for their votes.
The bidding for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games was also hit by scandal.
Under the IOC's new process of choosing venues, the approximately 100 IOC members no longer vote. The choice is made by the leadership headed by Bach. The IOC has already chosen venues for the Olympics through 2032.
They are: 2024 Paris; 2026 Milan-Cortina, Italy; 2028 Los Angeles; 2032 Brisbane, Australia. The only open slot is the 2030 Winter Olympics, in which Sapporo, Japan, seems to be the leading candidate. The IOC has not indicated when that choice will be made.
Bullit Marquez
Getting down to two candidates — neither the top choices — shocked the IOC. It was part of the reason that the IOC no longer goes through a long bid process to pick host cities. Bach said at the time that the bid process produced too many “losers."
Moreover, it was embarrassing for the IOC to explain why voters turned down holding the Olympics — particularly the smaller Winter Games. The bid process was also soiled by scandals surrounding the awarding of the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics, in which IOC member were allegedly bribed for their votes.
The bidding for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games was also hit by scandal.
Under the IOC's new process of choosing venues, the approximately 100 IOC members no longer vote. The choice is made by the leadership headed by Bach. The IOC has already chosen venues for the Olympics through 2032.
They are: 2024 Paris; 2026 Milan-Cortina, Italy; 2028 Los Angeles; 2032 Brisbane, Australia. The only open slot is the 2030 Winter Olympics, in which Sapporo, Japan, seems to be the leading candidate. The IOC has not indicated when that choice will be made.
Olympic athletes told to leave phones at home to dodge spying
David J. Phillip
A woman looks at her phone as she passes an Olympic logo inside the main media center for the Beijing Winter Olympics Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
David J. Phillip
A woman looks at her phone as she passes an Olympic logo inside the main media center for the Beijing Winter Olympics Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Olympic athletes told to leave phones at home to dodge spying
Fred Lee/Getty Images North America/TNS
A general view of athlete accommodation at the Olympic Village for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games on Dec. 10, 2021 in Beijing. (Fred Lee/Getty Images/TNS)
Fred Lee/Getty Images North America/TNS
A general view of athlete accommodation at the Olympic Village for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games on Dec. 10, 2021 in Beijing. (Fred Lee/Getty Images/TNS)
