App Spied on Belarusian Protesters
| App Spied on Belarusian Protesters | |
|---|---|
| Short Title | An App Mimicked a Popular Anti-Government News Site and Collected Data From Belarusian Protesters |
| Location | Belarus |
| Date | August 2020 |
| Solove Harm | Interrogation, Identification |
| Information | Location, Computer Device, Identifying |
| Threat Actors | Unidentified app creators, Google |
| Individuals | |
| Affected | Belarusian protesters |
| High Risk Groups | Freedom Fighter, Political Activists |
| Tangible Harms | |
In Belarus in 2020 an Android app mimicked a popular anti-government news site and collected location and device owner details to identify protest goers.
Description
In August 2020 after presidential elections hundreds of thousands of Belarusians went on the streets to protest election falsifications and police brutality, after the Central Electoral Committee announced the victory of the president Lukashenko (who has been in power since 1994) with allegedly more than 80% of votes.
One of the popular anti government news sources used by the protested to get information was a Telegram channel and a website called NEXTA LIVE - within a week the channel grew from few hundreds of thousands of followers to over 2 million followers.
In September 2020 an Android app named NEXTA LIVE that claimed to be an official app of the NEXTA team, was found to be collecting data from its users to deanonymize protesters. The app probing peoples phones for their personal information can be seen as a form of Interrogation through a proxy of a phone.
Later in a statement on Telegram NEXTA said the app was not associated with its service and should not be downloaded under any circumstances.
The app collected location data and gathered device owner details to deanonymize protest-goers, which can be interpreted as Identification.
It is unclear who is responsible for the app.
Google removed the app from the Google Play store after it was available for almost three weeks.
Breakdown
Threat: An app probing peoples phones for information about their location and device
At-Risk group: Protesters in Belarus
Harm: Interrogation
Secondary Consequences: potentially Loss of Liberty: Incarceration
Breakdown
Threat: The app deanonymizing people who are interested in anti-government content
At-Risk group: Protesters in Belarus
Harm: Identification
Secondary Consequences: potentially Loss of Liberty: Incarceration