China uses app to monitor access to overseas financial news sites

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Chinese police are using a new anti-fraud app installed on more than 200 million cell phones to identify and interview people who have visited financial news sites overseas, according to people summoned by authorities.

The app was launched in March by the National Anti-Fraud Center of the Ministry of Public Security and blocks suspicious phone calls and reports malware. Police said this was necessary to combat an upsurge in fraud, often perpetrated by overseas operations run by Chinese and Taiwanese nationals.

The ministry recommended that the app be downloaded, but many local government agencies have made it mandatory for their employees and the people they work with, such as students and tenants.

A Shanghai-based user told the Financial Times he was contacted by police after accessing a US financial information service. He was also asked if he had any contacts abroad and regularly visited foreign websites.

The user, who asked not to be identified, said police appeared to be genuinely concerned about foreign scams. “But the questions they raised about whether I contacted strangers made me feel that they didn’t want me to access foreign websites,” he added. “I deleted the app after the meeting.”

A second user from eastern Shandong province said police called him four days in a row after the app showed he had visited what they described as “very dangerous” information providers to the. foreign, including Bloomberg.

“They said they would remove the ‘dangerous’ label on Bloomberg but nothing happened,” the user said. “The authorities also do not disclose how they determine if a foreign website is linked to fraud. “

The app also generated thousands of online privacy complaints from people who said they had to download it to rent apartments or enroll their children in school.

A dozen people told the FT that they were uncomfortable giving the app 29 permissions, including live monitoring of call logs, text messages and conversations, in order to l ‘install on their phones.

“I am not going to give authorities access to all aspects of my life in order to fend off scams,” said a Shanghai-based marketing manager who ignored several requests to install the app.

Parents across the country have said they need to download the app before they are allowed to enroll their children in school. In Shenzhen, some tenants were forced to install it before signing rental leases.

“I have never seen such abuse of government power to promote an unpopular app,” said an office worker in Eastern Anhui Province who had to download the app before he could apply for a card. identity.

“This is a monitoring app that keeps track of everything on your phone,” added an office worker who removed the app several hours after local authorities asked him to install it. “I don’t need it, no matter how good his intentions are.”

According to official data, China arrested 361,000 people for electronic or online fraud last year, up from 73,000 arrests in 2018. In April, Li Bei, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security, described the fraud. fastest growing criminal activity in the country. .

The app offers dozens of courses on fraud prevention. “It has played an important role in the fight against scams,” Jiang Guoli, a senior public security official, said at a press conference in June. Jiang added that the app issued 23 million alert messages in the first three months of its launch.

The Ministry of Public Security and the National Anti-Fraud Center did not respond to a request for comment.

Karman Lucero, a member of Yale Law School, said the app could be misused by the government. “It could certainly be used to develop valuable information about who you are and what you do even without listening to your phone calls or reading the exact contents of your texts,” he said.

Additional reporting by Nian Liu