Due to security concerns over data collection about a vehicle’s surroundings, the Polish armed forces have banned Chinese-made vehicles from the country’s military bases.
In a statement, the armed forces said that after a risk analysis on the “increasing integration of digital systems in vehicles and the possibility of uncontrolled collection and use of data by these systems,” they decided to ban all Chinese-made vehicles from entering “protected military facilities.”
For the same reason, officially issued phones are banned from being connected to infotainment systems on Chinese-made cars, regardless of where they are driven.
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Although China is the only country named in the announcement, the new restrictions also apply to vehicles “equipped with integrated or additional devices capable of recording position, image or sound,” regardless of their origin. Once these features are deactivated, these vehicles will be allowed to enter military installations again.
The new rules do not apply to military vehicles and do not apply during rescue operations or when other government agencies carry out official tasks such as inspections or services.
It should be noted that although Chinese-branded vehicles are easy for security personnel to spot, others may be more difficult to spot, such as the BMW iX3 and various Chinese-made Volvo models.
The military has also asked the Polish government to develop a legal and safety approval framework for “vehicles equipped with advanced systems to monitor the condition of the vehicle and its surroundings.”
This is not the first time safety concerns have been raised about Chinese-made technology. Many countries have decided to ban Huawei and ZTE from supplying equipment to telecom providers because of fears of backdoors and snooping by the Chinese government.
Modern technology, even when used in a non-malicious manner, can inadvertently reveal details about security infrastructure, such as when fitness tracker Strava released its 2017 heat map showing the movement patterns of personnel at military installations around the world.
