The United States Olympic and Paralympic committee is telling athletes to ditch their personal phones for burners ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics in China. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympics are scheduled to take place in China next month.

The advisory was sent out twice last year to warn athletes about the possibility of digital surveillance while in China.’your device (s) may also be compromised with malicious software, which could negatively impact future use,’ the bulletin States.

In 2019, China was caught secretly installing spyware on tourists’ phones who entered from the Xinjiang region. The uyghurs are a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority that China has subjected to imprisonment and torture. In addition, researchers found that China’s my2022 Olympic app is full of security holes that could lead to privacy breaches, surveillance, and hacking.

China has banned all foreign spectators due to concerns over covid-19. Athletes will likely be relying on their mobile devices to stay in touch with friends and family.

During the 2008 Olympics, China promised to offer unrestricted access to the web. The great firewall of China currently blocks a number of popular websites in the country. Journalists reported that they still were n’t able to access certain websites.