[awsedr58479]

Disclaimer: using a throwaway for the matter.

I've crossed this border before, and I did get my phone checked. A few additional facts:

- 1-2 years ago, they were only taking the phone away while crossing the border TO China. If exiting China, they were using a portable machine in front of you

- they attempt to connect your phone to a local WiFi network, download and install an app. The apps runs quick and is unlikely to send much data

- at that time, they weren't checking iPhones, Android only

- having another user on your Android phone, with restricted privileges (especially for chrome) seemed to be enough to prevent them from installing anything. The guard ended up searching the phone manually (i.e pictures) - but still on the restricted user

Oh and: all police checkpoints have "charging" stations along the way.

Edit: formatting

[chvid]

I am curious; what border did you cross? How was Xinjiang? Did you just go there for tourism?

[awsedr58479]

The same as mentioned in the article: Irkeshtam (kashgar -> Kyrgyzstan). Yes mainly tourism, but also to see from my own eyes what's happening in Xinjiang, and the situation at the time wasn't great at all and very close to what you can read now and then (and it probably still is).

[saagarjha]

> The apps runs quick and is unlikely to send much data

What makes you think this?

[awsedr58479]

The apps runs for about a couple of minutes. The only way it can be sending data is over WiFi (I've seen it running on a friend's phone who didn't create a second user). The phone had gigs of data. So it might be collecting sensitive data but surely not dumping the whole content of the phone.