Creepy Chinese app tracks Muslims’ every move

Imagine having all of your movements, including the door you leave your house from and how often you use your phone, monitored by authorities. In China, this is now a reality.

Imagine not being able to fill up your tank with petrol, charge your phone or even leave your house without authority figures knowing about it.

This, according to Human Rights Watch, is the reality for up to 13 million Uighur Muslims in China’s autonomous region of Xinjiang.

Chinese authorities are using an app to track the country’s Muslim population. The app records their every movement and raises the alarm if they do something seen to be out of the ordinary.

The surveillance app tracks an individual’s electricity use and can raise an alert if someone other than the registered owner fills up their car with petrol.

The app is always monitoring them — including when they leave the house and use their phone.

The human rights organisation said turning your phone off for a long time could trigger an alert, as could leaving home through the back door or failing to socialise with neighbours. Those who “collected money or materials for mosques with enthusiasm” also fall under suspicion.

Repeat offenders may be restricted in their daily movements or even sent to one of Xinjiang’s notorious detention camps.

“Our research shows, for the first time, that Xinjiang police are using illegally gathered information about people’s completely lawful behaviour — and using it against them,” said Maya Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Chinese Government is monitoring every aspect of people’s lives in Xinjiang, picking out those it mistrusts and subjecting them to extra scrutiny.”

This is far more intrusive than China’s social credit system, which assigns a citizen a score based on their behaviour, finances and public conduct.

HRW said it decoded a mobile app used by Chinese officials to connect to a policing program through which all this data is available.

They collect personal information, including an individual’s blood type, height and “religious atmosphere”.

“This is not just about Xinjiang or even China, it’s about the world beyond and whether we human beings can continue to have freedom in a world of connected devices,” Ms Wang said. “It’s a wake-up call, not just about China but about every one of us.”