Last month, users of
Vivo NEX, a Chinese
Android phone, found that when they opened certain applications on the phone, including Chinese internet giant QQ browser and travel
booking app Ctrip, the mobile device’s camera would self-activate.
Different from most mobile phones, where a camera can be activated without giving the user any signal, the Vivo NEX has a tiny retractable camera that physically pops out from the top of the device when it is turned on.
Though perhaps unintentionally, this design feature has given Chinese mobile users a tangible sense of exactly when and how they are being monitored.
One Weibo user observed that the retractable camera self-activates whenever he opens a new chat on Telegram, a messaging application designed for secured and encrypted communication.
While Telegram reacted quickly to reports of the issue and fixed the camera bug, Chinese internet giant Tencent instead defended the feature, arguing that its QQ browser needs the camera activated to prepare for scanning QR codes and insisted that the camera would not take photos or audio recordings unless the user told it to do so.
This explanation was not reassuring for users, as it only revealed the degree to which the QQ browser could record users’ activities.
