SOK’s recommendation to Beijing: Use “shiny” phones

There is no ban on bringing your own equipment for Swedish athletes.

Ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics in Beijing, the Swedish Olympic Committee (SOK) is rather working on recommendations – but IT security, the risk of surveillance and the Chinese regime’s access to sensitive data in computers and telephones have involved different preparations.

– You have to think about what equipment you bring into the country, says SOK’s media manager Lars Markusson to DN.

– Technical security on site in China has been an important part of the training that (the human rights organization) Civil Rights Defenders has had with just over 250 people in our squad.

– When they have had this compulsory course, it was included as a point, that you simply have to reckon with the information you have in your technical equipment can be exposed and that it is common to do so.

As usual on all Olympics, the active ones will get new phones from a sponsor when they arrive at the games. This time, leaders will receive new mobiles from SOK.

SOK’s recommendation is that these phones should be used in Beijing.

– Athletes get phones every Olympics, this is nothing new. The important thing then is how you use them. That you may not have your own, sensitive data in those phones. Therefore, we think it is good that all leaders get a new phone and that all active people also get a blank phone.

The issue of IT security is at its peak when the inauguration is now only three weeks away.

Two weeks before departure, all Olympic travelers must start reporting their health status to Chinese authorities due to the pandemic, in a special app or via the web.

Are there any concerns among those active on these issues?

– We started informing about this already at the first competitions in May. There have definitely been questions about how it works in practice. But those who have been worried, I hope have received the knowledge they need to be able to make a rational decision, says Lars Markusson.

– For example, I will bring equipment that I will not use again when I get home. There are different variants and solutions.

Also the British Olympic Committee has gone out with one similar recommendation to his squad. The Dutch equivalent has taken it a step further and told its activists and leaders to leave all private equipment at home, and around the world media companies act in a similar way.

According to SOK, coaches and leaders who sit on aggregate statistics and perhaps sensitive data digitally should only use that type of information in a so-called offline mode.

– It is also important that you do not use the computers when you get home.

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China has gone out with that internet in the Olympic bubble should not be censored. But SOK has also bought special SIM cards that allow you to surf censorship-free.

They allow the Olympic stars to, and may, use social media, for example.

The question then is what they “dare” to post.

– That question has been asked and we have answered that it is important to feel that freedom of expression applies, Markusson says.

– We want to emphasize this in all contexts and especially in contact with the media. Then there are Olympic rules on political messages on podiums and so on, but when you act on social media or when you meet the media, it is important that those who represent a Swedish troupe feel that they have freedom of expression.

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