A new report by Tibetan activist groups and experts shows new evidence that the Chinese government is increasing digital surveillance of Tibetans through practices such as the mandatory installation of apps at police checkpoints or utilising big data policing platforms supported by technologies from American tech firms.
Some analysts say these new findings provide a glimpse into Beijing’s security apparatus in Tibet. “The Chinese government’s apparatus in Tibet remains a black box in nature, but this report provides [the outside world] with a glimpse into how these systems work,” Greg Walton, senior investigator at U.K.-based security consulting firm Secdev Group and one of the report’s authors, told VOA by phone.
The report from Tibet Watch and a Tibet-focused research network called Turquoise Roof found that authorities have been asking residents in Tibet to install an app called “National Anti-Fraud Center” on their smartphones since 2021.
According to some testimonies from Tibetans, police would routinely ask residents to install the security application on their smartphones at checkpoints while local authorities have been teaching the public how to download and use the app. Some Tibetans have expressed concern that the app may be used to track their movements and potentially access data on their phones.
“It looks like a surveillance app that tracks not only our movement but also has built-in automatic voice recording and photo-sharing functionalities,” an unnamed Tibetan man told Tibet Watch in 2023, according to the report.
Based on their analysis of the app, the report found that permissions that the app asked for from smartphone users could allow app operators to access sensitive user data or have control over certain device functionalities.
The report said the broad scope of permissions could let authorities conduct highly invasive surveillance, which is in line with measures that Chinese authorities typically use in regions like Tibet and Xinjiang to maintain public order.
“Our analysis suggests that data controlled by the Anti-Fraud app could connect into wider systems operated by the Criminal Investigation Bureau [and] the mandatory installation of the app at police checkpoints could serve as a platform for harvesting a dataset used for monitoring and controlling the population, particularly in suppressing dissent and cultural expression,” the report wrote. In addition to the forced installation of the anti-fraud app, the report also investigated a big data policing platform used by Tibetan authorities called “‘Tibet Underworld Criminal Integrated Intelligence Application Platform.”
Their analysis of government procurement notices suggests the platform, which is developed on top of technology originating from American tech company Oracle, combines data from several Public Security Bureau systems in Tibet and is an instrumental part of Chinese authorities’ campaign to criminalise moderate cultural and religious expressions or language rights advocacy.
