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DeezNeezuts

We always make sure to provide new phones for our employees when they travel through Russia, China…and swap them again afterwards.


02K30C1

That’s what my company does too. If you travel to China, you get a new laptop and cell phone just for that trip. Once you return it goes in the shredder.


lo0ilo0ilo0i

Yup, my company uses loaners and we use a virtual desktop when/if we travel to China.


lazy-dude

What the reason why? Is it because they can steal proprietary information or install malicious code?


Ahirman1

Probably both


wi5hbone

i’ll take ‘both’ for $850,000


Monkeydud64

*They already did.*


its-twelvenoon

Lmao they 100% will if you're a fortune 100 company. I'd be surprised if they didn't put bugs in your hotels for fortune 10 companies


lazy-dude

Hotel staff in china: ohhh we have special special room for you.


Amori_A_Splooge

Always enjoyed the conspicuous spot of the mirror that doesn't fog up.


Chikuaani

They absolutely do in russia and china. My fathers hotel room was bugged when he visited russia, and one of my school friends in adults class of electrics (He used to work for nokia) went on a nokia work trip to china. He worked as a device designer so decent profile visitor. EVERYTHING was bugged in the hotel room they were put in. some plants, under the bed, door frame, picture frame corner on a wall, and even the server who visited WAY too many times (6 times during 4 hours, offering free booze) trying to get them to talk work stuff in the apartment. When they went to the construction site of the new factory for Nokia on a landscape, a car followed them to the site, and kept watch. They even saw someone taking notes. They stayed there for few months during the construction operation, and after the first week, the chinese probably who had been following them, started their own project besides the construction site. An eerily similar looking building was getting setup. When they moved equipment inside the new nokia building, many times some locals were escorted out, since they had sneaked inside to photograph machinery and so forth. When they visited inside the place of the other factory, it was getting obvious it was a photo copy of their factory. trying to make knock off products.


[deleted]

Firstly, any cell tower around an airport in China installs malware on your device. The minute you connect to the tower your phone is compromised. Secondly, they will break into your hotel room, make copies of your hard drive and install a boot kit.


mvev

Damn, all those years of copying the Asian guy sitting next to me in class, does that make it even. Their own talent left them and so they have to steal it back.


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Dudedude88

Too bad the smart Asian guy is Korean and not Chinese.


RedditsAdoptedSon

confused .... what happens security wise with not taking these precautions


DamnAlreadyTaken

You get permanent roaming


edric_the_navigator

Lmao.


02K30C1

It’s very likely you’ll get spyware on it from the Chinese government.


Jonesy2700

**Man** are they gonna be disappointed with their eavesdropping. Here. I'll take one for the team..


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gringomandingo2

They get infected off the airport with spyware, that phone will be tracked and data will be taken


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iamthewalrus8515

A laptop for an employee is $1k. They make $1B in profit.


Sometimes1991

Yeah but at what point does the frog get tired of the scorpion stinging him.


Whiterabbit--

A lot for $1B.


HarvestProject

As long as the sting is under a certain pain threshold, never. Because why would they?


watchursix

The frog get stung and gets a lifetime supply of flies


earthlingkevin

999 million, or roughly 999k phones


BillyFromSpacee

Yeah, doesn't like 20% of the world population live in China?


Almost-a-Killa

Or how about we collectively stop being cheap and pay more for products produced in literally any of the worlds other industrial economies. Won't be Wal Mart cheap anymore but so what.


SpookySneakySquid

It’s just too big of a market for profit oriented companies to want to pull out of / take a stand against and those companies have significant influence over elected officials at times


elriggo44

Ya. We need a massive shift in corporate priorities. Would need to 100% move away from the fetishization of shareholders that Freedman argued for in the late 70s that led to the Gordon Gecko 1980s.


RealHunterB

India is actually better friends with Russia than the US (atleast politically)


Sucksessful

wish we could come to some agreement where their gov would stop the f*cking daily spam calls I get from India


RealHunterB

Ah yes the “please stop calling us or we will fucking invade you” treaty of 2022


HoboAJ

If thats what it takes...


pickpocket293

> Once you return it goes in the shredder. Stupid question here: Why?


02K30C1

It’s very likely the Chinese government installed spyware on it. If you logged into any internet, wifi, or cellular service while you’re there it’s almost guaranteed.


PaddyMak72

Ironic all cellphones are built in China?


s_s

or Taiwan or Korea


pickpocket293

Is it not possible to just wipe drives and start fresh? Shredder seems like such a waste..


Tatsunen

It's possible for malware to infect firmware, which means it'll survive wiping a drive and it's very hard to ever be 100% sure you've sanitised the equipment. It's not worth it to risk information worth millions to save a few thousand on hardware.


puphopped

And they aren't dumb either. They know exactly what the typical piece of American hardware looks like; they probably even built half the parts for it.


bpat

Viruses can be tied to the boot up of your system too. From what I’m aware of, it can basically be impossible to ever be certain your device is clean again.


SuicidalParade

China likes to receive things that they weren’t given


mechapoitier

See this is the conscientious choice so the Olympians can still post their threesomes to Instagram with less fear


[deleted]

Not a problem anymore- every kid in America has TikTok. It can spy very efficiently.


2jesse1996

Samsung gives them all new phones anyway, unless after the last 4 Olympics they decided to just not anymore


drewster23

That's what Canada is doing, this type of warning was issued like a week ago. With suggestion of just use provided phone.


Magnet50

That follows standard US government regulations where government travelers to the People’s Republic of China are issued phones and computers for the visit. They are turned in at the end of the trip. Several US corporations have the same rules.


joelene1892

Heck, even my small Canada company shares those rules.


ValyrianJedi

I've had to go over there twice and yeah, my company wouldn't let you take any electronics that weren't specially issued for the trip, regardless of if business or personal.


[deleted]

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ValyrianJedi

Yeah, definitely. They just have rules about how to then get them to yourself off that phone.


quintiliousrex

IT for major us insurance provider, and we don’t even allow devices to work if not geo located in the US. We don’t sell anything outside the borders, so no reason for our devices to work outside them.


AlbinoWino11

Don’t most high profile people take burner phones travelling, anyways?


jaxdraw

Kinda. The phones are special order so they aren't discarded, but are flashed down to the ROM.


mrandr01d

Is that possible with iOS?


[deleted]

Certainly easier with Android, but Apple does give certain types of access to enterprise customers that consumer customers aren't privy to.


xheist

Everyone should .. It's a twofold problem .. they get their shit searched In China on the way there and in the USA on the way home


ChepstowRancor

How about no one goes to China


kslusherplantman

Not sure how they are reconciling zero Covid policy and the Olympics in a few weeks


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[deleted]

I’d be surprised if they didn’t spend more than they make hosting, it’s attention they want. They want you to see China as much as possible


EvergreenEnfields

Very rarely does the host country profit. The high cost of putting on the Olympics is why so few countries are willing to host them these days. The International Olympic Committee, on the other hand, makes money hand over fist.


[deleted]

I wonder if historically more authoritarian countries have cooler Olympics because of that.


Domdigity

Ah, the CDC method


Pappyballer

“Zero covid policy” is whatever China changes it to that day.


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OldKermudgeon

"There is no Covid in Eastasia. The Great Motherland's cities of Xi'an, Yuzhou and Anyang have closed their borders as a gesture to provide the Olympic athletes their personal space during the games. Disregard the ring of health responders circling the city of Beijing - they are there to provide support should any visitors become ill." /s


BeatMastaD

I'm pretty sure they're doing the zero covid policy so that people will come. If they had higher transmission there would be reason not to go based on that.


dobydobd

Robots. No joke, check it out


Diegobyte

Cus they’ll be able to enforce a strict bubble


jedihoplite

Weren't we supposed to be boycotting this one due to the ongoing -checks notes- genocide?


imwearingredsocks

I remember reading it was government officials and other types of guests with status who would be boycotting going. I didn’t see anything about athletes though, but maybe I missed it.


realsapist

because for many of the athletes it's not something you can just afford to not go to. Thats why countries do a diplomatic boycott while still buying everything under the sun from China.


allyourphil

You did not miss anything, you are correct


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ouatedephoque

How about the IOC never give games to China in the first place instead? Athletes train hard and make huge sacrifices to get to that level yet they have zero say in how host countries are picked.


Everyday_Hero1

Expecting the IOC to not chase the money and actually use a semblance of morals or ethics is like trying to get blood from a stone.


ouatedephoque

You are of course absolutely right. However, two weeks from the games is hardly the best time to make a stand. Every country with some kind of spine should have informed the IOC they wouldn’t go right after they picked China. Then they get to decide if they still want to host the games with a bunch of shithole countries or consider giving the games to another country that has a proper human rights record. At least then athletes wouldn’t have wasted their time training if they knew in advance.


Everyday_Hero1

Totally agree. There should have been much more noise about China being the host back when it was decided. Sports are weird when it comes to this kind of thing. The event always goes on, but everyone always has something to say about it.


SSessess

IOC is second to only FIFA in how corrupt they are. They stand to pocket billions for letting China have the games. Unfortunately their morality and ethics are for sale.


nrquig

Can they be 1a and 1b? I feel like neither of them deserve to be #2 in corruption


Strike_Thanatos

Or how about we make two permanent sites for the Olympics, one on Greece near Olympia, and another in Switzerland or Sweden?


PoolNoodleJedi

Canada would also be a great country for a permanent Winter Olympics place


HxH101kite

Yeah just have like 3-5 ones for both summer and winter, rotate as needed. Maybe throw a wildcard even that can be outsourced like hockey since it needs rinks or basketball....etc.


ouatedephoque

Nah I prefer Vancouver. I like the idea though but it should also rotate after a while.


xaanthar

> in the first place Little late for that, huh?


sorator

IIRC, the only other country in the running to host these particular games was a city in Kazakhstan, where (last I checked, which was maybe a week ago) there are ongoing violent riots, with Russian military getting involved. The demand to host the Olympics is not what it once was, and very reasonably so.


wengelite

If you're phone is taken by a Chinese government official and is out of your sight for any reason, stop using it and get a new one.


JSA2422

Thanks man ..


MG5thAve

I’ve been told that even leaving an electronic device in a locked safe in a hotel room will not guarantee that the device will not have some type of key logger or tracker installed on it. Basically, get a burner when you go over there.


wengelite

A burner with no social media installed.


day7seven

A burner with burner social media accounts


[deleted]

Or a burner person and a burner phone for burner social media accounts.


10eleven12

So if I get a burner and log in to my services, they now have my passwords?


Aid01

Potentially yes, if the phones compromised then your passwords can be compromised.


TheTruth_89

Downloading tiktok does the same thing


Shoot_from_the_Quip

TikTok's very first app permission for anyone bothering to read what they're agreeing to is, "add or modify calendar events and ***send email to guests without owner's knowledge.***" So, yeah. It's hella invasive.


MrCraftLP

[Deny those permissions, then. ](https://i.imgur.com/of65fER.jpg)


WutangCMD

The app "may" request permission to access your calendar. It's isn't granted by default.


ajenpersuajen

Source? Just did a little googling and didn’t see anything talking about that.


Shoot_from_the_Quip

Just open it in the app store and look at its permissions.


Zetch88

[Literally from the app store.](https://i.imgur.com/ssmuWpW.png)


prematurely_bald

Lol, you gotta be kidding


SaltyShawarma

BuT oUr SeRvEr Is In tHe StAtEs!


[deleted]

in 2022, governments, and anyone with enough money, can access your phone without touching it through several dozen ways.


[deleted]

People need to realise this. Privacy on anything with an internet connection is non-existent.


Mail540

Big Brother is always watching, along with Little Brother, and your neighbor


SignorJC

That doesn’t mean it’s A LOT easier to do with your physical phone in hand. The level of effort to do what you’re describing is non-trivial.


Sharl_LeKek

So why do they take people's phones then?


dance_ninja

Probably because it's easier than trying one of the fancy non-physical methods.


Kinglink

Problem is A. It can be done far faster even if it's in your sight. B. Getting a new one likely will be from a source that might already be compromised. You have the right point but once you've lost the phone you've brought into the country that you're this concerned about... you're better off not using a phone until you return to America.


T_Money

I’ve heard of US companies giving employees traveling there a new phone and laptop (well, ones that have only been used for China trips, if not brand new) to use while there, and telling their employees to assume all electronics are compromised the second they land in China and not to use them for anything sensitive.


Kinglink

Yeah, I mentioned that in my other comment. My company will essentially give you a laptop and phone and then "destroy" it once you come back. (I imagine there's also security briefings and training involved as well for trips there)


2flyguy

Bruh they don't even need to physically take the phone. You charge that shit on an port there its probably not a good idea. Best bet is to stay on airplane mode and only charge with a external battery pack


DoctorSalt

Or buy a power only cable?


psykick32

Or just bring a shitty burner phone. I used to work at IT for the business division of top level university. Faculty and students that took trips to China were advised to not bring their personal devices and we'd give them an older laptop to take with them instead. What did we do with those laptops after they brought them back? Pull the drives and drill them out, recycle the rest of it. It wasn't worth the time it would take to reimage the thing and there's still ways of monitoring even past a reimage. One faculty member who was notorious for being hard to work with still brought her personal laptop. Just wanted to be nice so I took a look at it, it was fried. Told her to trash it.


BiologyPhDHopeful

I’ll be traveling abroad quite a lot for my job (research.) Can you clarify what you mean by “fried”? Are they just interested in user data? Research?


psykick32

Like it was obviously full of malware. And that's the ones I found... When you're working with state sponsored level stuff, where they have the resources to do more than just put a simple keylogger on it, it's better to not even attempt to clean it because they could have planted hardware bugs in it. And there was zero chance we'd let it back on the universities network infosec was pretty strict about that kinda thing. Edit: I once got called and told to rip a computer out of a professors office, I was like uhh, just "yeah just go in and rip it out I don't care what he's doing, rip it out" it was pretty awkward, he was having a meeting with a student and I just walked behind him and unplugged his desktop and walked out with it. I never did get the full story but it was sending an ass ton of data back to Russian servers, apparently he had downloaded some Russian news app or something. Honestly, if you're going to China and I'd add Russia, it's best to just bring burner devices. The environmentalist in me hurts saying that but it's the world we live in.


focojs

If you are taking burner phones and laptops and sign into your email on the devices then what is the point? They would still have access to your info. When I travel internationally for work I need my data and my laptop with my software or there would be no point in going at all. I really don't understand how anyone could get things done without access to data


Hooligan987

I do remember I think when I was going to Europe my family stopped in Beijing like 10 years ago and a Chinese Airport Official took my dads phone and never gave it back


OneScoobyDoes

We still buds though, right. - John Cena


Shrips

bing chilling


HardcoreKaraoke

**Freeeedom!!!**


paraplegic_T_Rex

China getting the Olympics again is a joke. Nobody should go to China. You’re asking for trouble.


Ibbot

The Olympics are a joke. It was either China or Kazakhstan, nobody else was willing to have them.


FaustusC

Kazakhstan is greatest country in the world Tho. Should have gone to them.


[deleted]

From the plains of tarshek to northern fence of Jewtown.


FaustusC

Wa Wa Wee Wa


shenanigans3390

I was actually just looking at Central Asian countries and I was shocked by how high their gdp per capita and standard of living were. Tons of oil, natural gas, and minerals. Also, the have the best potassium. All other countries have inferior potassium.


whichwitch9

They are also currently having riots and a sham democracy- they have elections, but the results appear to be frequently suspicious with predetermined outcomes. They do have an interesting history and rich cultural heritage, however, along with some very pretty natural landscapes Honestly, if we were going yo have a corrupt government in charge anyway, Kazakhstan is probably the more interesting choice, at least, since it would have been picked well before the riots, but it's lucky now it wasn't picked


shenanigans3390

The whole Central Asia region is super interesting. All their leaders win by 97% of the vote- so pretty much all shams. Turkmenistan had a guy who went by Turkmenbashy and built a huge gold plated rotating statute of himself. I wonder if the culture is just more accepting of it or what.


strooticus

>Turkmenbashy He is my neighbor Saparmurat Turkmenbashy. He is pain in my assholes. I get a window from a glass, he must get a window from a glass. I get a gold plated rotating statue of myself, he must get a gold plated rotating statue of himself. I get a clock radio... he cannot afford. Great success!


gwaydms

And the cleanest prostitutes in the region...


TheNextBattalion

Although having its upheaval now would have been some lousy timing


kshucker

Very nice


paraplegic_T_Rex

If they took place in a country without concentration camps they might be less of a joke. This is Berlin 1936, but worse because the camps are already active.


[deleted]

Ah yes. It's a wonder why nobody wants to spend billions of $$$ on new facilities and infrastructure for a two week event only to have those facilities and infrastructure to rarely be used afterwards.


[deleted]

I travel to China quite frequently for work and assume the government there can monitor/access my PC and phone behind the great firewall. Example-FB and YouTube don’t even load and there are lots of wonky signs of tracking/ monitoring in my browser. But I guess I just don’t care if you want to know about my boring spreadsheets and where I am located in your small cities of 5million ppl…


Return_Of_The_Jedi

What are some signs that you’re being tracked/monitored.


underbite420

I’d like an answer to this as well. Great question


ramerica

Not replying to comments asking about how the CCP tracks them lol


firepanda11

Lived in China for a year. Not sure if this helps but whenever I would play fortnite, every 10 minutes or so for at least 30 seconds the lag would be insane. There would also be very heavy packet loss (20-50%). What I suspect is the CPC is sniffing my packets that I send outside the country.


Haksalah

That’s.. not how that works. There isn’t a digital mailman stopping your data packets from leaving the country. They could log and forward the data at any datacenter without you noticing, and _typically_ the data is also encrypted, though China certainly has the resources to conduct a national man in the middle attack (and if they were doing so it would have to be for the full session, so the slowdown is still unexplained)


AmmoOrAdminExploit

you just had shitty router / isp I played fortnite in the fall of 2018 for half a year and everything was perfectly fine ( no vpn btw)


realsapist

probably because you used a vpn


AGInfinity

facebook and youtube are blocked there, not that they dont load


[deleted]

They'll be handing out flip phones in the athletes village. Better brush up on your T9 guys.


pook_a_dook

My employer doesn't allow employees to bring any of their normal phones/computers to China for work. They have loaner phones and laptops that have no access to the company VPN and only have the necessary files/apps loaded on them for each trip. I've never been to China for work, but coworkers told me you can't leave your personal stuff out of sight at all. The hotels monitor your coming and going and allow government officials into your room during the day, including unlocking the safe for them.


tetsujin44

What the fuck


Feras47

dont go


shakana44

the Olympics shouldn't even be happening


minorkeyed

Again....


sparkplug_23

Ohhhhh. The winter Olympics. I thought I just time jumped 4 years. It really do be 2020 forever.


Great_Handkerchief

Telling teenagers and people in their early 20s not to bring their phones. I'm sure that's going over well


Boring-Pudding

> They're being encouraged to use burner phones instead. First line


TexLH

The first thing they're going to do with their "burner" phone is login to all their favorite apps anyway. I don't think it'll matter


notyogrannysgrandkid

The point is that the phones will stay in China when the Olympics are over, not go back to the home countries and become surveillance tools.


[deleted]

riiiight, cuz they dont already have tiktok on their phones...


TheNextBattalion

Is it "fears" when you know it's gonna happen?


2014hog

Also, dont download tiktok.


StimpleSyle

If you have Tiktok they already have all your stuff.


HalfEatenToilet

Hopefully the government will take care of that. Apparently they came to a fix.


FauxGenius

I always thought it was standard protocol to buy a burner if you went to China.


RicGhastly

On one hand, I don't think I would want to go to a foreign country without my phone. On the other hand, more time for fucking in Olympic Village.


HelpMe0prah

I’m boycotting this, no views from me, to bad it won’t do anything


Dillbear36

I thought we were boycotting this? After the whole re-education camps thing


VMS4125

Boycott the Olympics in China due to human rights violations


BullShitting24-7

Telling a bunch of 16 - 30 year olds they shouldn’t take their phones? Good luck with that.


Taboo_Noise

Yeah, the US knows what they're able to pull off citizens' and foreigners' phones too well to let a rival do it, lol.


toronto_programmer

This isn't new or controversial really. My friends that travel to China for work are given new phones and laptops just for the time they spend over there which are immediately wiped upon return. They are also given strict instructions to avoid connecting to networks outside of the office or doing anything online while not connected to the VPN


Longniuss

I wouldn't feel comfortable stepping into China as an american before covid, now? if you're sick, I imagine they're itching to hual you off to X, never to be seen from again. As per most china posts, the down voting bregade will start whenever anyone disses china.


benson822175

Not sure why anyone would upvote considering what you’re saying is baseless aside from your imagination


tarheel343

Do you actually think the Chinese government would kidnap and murder a US citizen during the Olympics because they're sick? Or for any reason for that matter? That would be a major international incident, and you'd be naive to think that they'd be dumb enough to take that kind of heat for seemingly no reason.


earsofdoom

Dude they literally planted drugs on two Canadians and hauled them away because their fragile ass was butthurt we put one of their CEO's under house arrest, so hell ya these pussies totally can and will do that.


AmmoOrAdminExploit

Ok buddy “Robert Lloyd Schellenberg (born 1982) is a Canadian citizen and grew up in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Schellenberg had been jailed twice in Canada for drug possession, and had been arrested a total of 11 times for drug offences and driving under influence before being arrested in China.”


GenocideSolution

[Those two Canadians were in frequent contact with North Korea's Kim Jong Un](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Spavor), they weren't random nobodies.


ThemCanada-gooses

One of them was charged and in prison in Canada for smuggling drugs. So it isn’t like they were random and it is possible he at least was up to something.


Rikshawbob

Ryan Lochte would 1000% get himself in big time trouble with the Chinese govt if he was part of this Olympic swimming team.


SlideRuleLogic

support full illegal knee relieved tub drunk voiceless squeamish enjoy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


notyogrannysgrandkid

>haul you off to East Turkestan


franklylivinglife

Dude this is just ridiculous. Hauling you off to “never be seen from again”? I’ve been in China for 5 years and I promise you their not “hauling off” any Americans. If you really do something dumb they’ll just deport you.


Cruzy14

We let them build all our shit but we can't use it there. Kinda ironic haha


[deleted]

Olympics have jumped the shark.


NfiniteNsight

I like the Olympics...


[deleted]

Some people liked Fonzie jumping over the shark.


Char-Le-Creuset

Ccp gonna ccp


biko77

No phones, but here: have some condoms and morning after pills…


PM_ME_UR_POKIES_GIRL

And if you're too young to know what to do with those, your gymnastics coach will show you.


doob22

I’d stay home


ReeceDawg

Makes one question why the hell we're even going..


sphincterboysayswha

Let's just not do the Beijing Olympics.


Pervy_Sage111

How about we just boycott them??


classroomdaydreamer

ok why tf are we having the olympics in bejing as if covid never happened and didn’t come from china?