Yangtze Briefing | Shanghai civil service rolls out non-Apple smartphone programme
Coolpad, a domestic manufacturer, is chosen for replacement programme aimed at boosting security
Thousands of Shanghai civil servants were given a new work smartphone last week as part of a municipal government effort to bolster information security and spread home-grown brands.
The workers received a device made by Coolpad, which was ranked third in the mainland smartphone market by tech research firm IDC. The phone passed encryption tests and officials apparently believe it is safe from hackers.
It's a 4G model that retails for 1,990 yuan (HK$2,510), and about 10,000 workers had received the phone, three officials said. That would put the total cost - before any bulk order discounts - at about 20 million yuan. If the programme is extended to the city's entire workforce of 150,000 civil servants, the bill could run as high as 300 million yuan.
The central government is rethinking its telecommunications security amid allegations Apple's iPhone isn't very secure. German magazine Der Spiegel reported last year on leaked documents from the US National Security Administration that claimed the NSA had built a backdoor in Apple software that allowed data to be sent or retrieved from handsets.
The software would allow a remote user to pull all photos, e-mails and contact details from a handset and even activate the microphone and camera function - all without alerting the owner.
Apple denied it had worked with the spy organisation on a backdoor and said it constantly monitored threats to customers' security.
Then in July, state broadcaster CCTV reported the iPhone's frequent location tracking software could allow the company to determine the movements of a user, which posed a threat to national security. Apple responded by saying the data was stored on the smartphone and protected by a user password.