Due to security concerns around the collection of data about their surroundings, the Polish Armed Forces have banned vehicles made in China from the country’s military bases.
In a statement, the Armed Forces said that after a risk analysis on the “increasing integration of digital systems in vehicles and the potential for uncontrolled acquisition and use of data by these systems”, it has decided to ban all made-in-China vehicles from entering “protected military facilities”.
For the same reason, officially issued phones are prohibited from being connected to the infotainment systems of cars produced in China, regardless of where they’re being driven.
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Although China is the only country named in the announcement, the new restrictions also apply to vehicles “equipped with integral or additional devices capable of recording position, image, or sound” regardless of their origin. Once these functions have been disabled, these cars will be allowed back into military facilities.
The new rules don’t apply to vehicles owned by the military, and also don’t apply during rescue operations, or when other government bodies are carrying out official duties, such as inspections or providing services.
It should be noted that while vehicles from Chinese brands may be easy to spot by security personnel, others might be harder to pick out, such as the BMW iX3 and various Volvo models that are made in China.
The military has also asked the Polish government to come up with a legal and security approval framework regarding “vehicles equipped with advanced systems for monitoring the condition of the vehicle and its surroundings”.
This isn’t the first time security concerns have been raised about technology that’s made in China, with many countries deciding to ban Huawei and ZTE from supplying equipment to telecommunications providers due to fears about backdoors and snooping from the Chinese government.
Modern technology, even when used in a non-malicious manner, can inadvertently reveal details about security infrastructure, such as when the fitness tracker Strava released its 2017 heat map showing the movement patterns of personnel within military facilities across the world.