The mascots for the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games are seen on a street in Beijing on January 11, 2022. Photo: VCG

Reports about China's Winter Olympics official app having security flaws are absolutely a distortion of facts and totally without evidence, a spokesperson from Chinese Embassy in Canada said on Wednesday morning, after overseas media rushed to report the conclusion of some Canadian researchers that sensitive information collected by the app may be vulnerable to hacking. 

"There's no need to worry about cyber security," the spokesperson said. "China has always been against and will crack down upon any kinds of cyber attacks and cyber stalking." 

According to the official, China will provide convenient internet services for domestic and overseas athletes in addition to media staff based on the principle of safety, openness and cooperation. Furthermore, all sides have expressed satisfaction over China's open network services during their usage. 

The spokesperson's clarification came after multiple overseas media outlets reported comments by researchers from Toronto's Citizen Lab project, who claimed that the app built by the Beijing Organising Committee, referred to as 'My2022,' failed to properly encrypt the transfer of personal data, leaving it vulnerable to hackers.

The researchers also found that My2022's privacy policy does not specify which organizations it would share the users' information with, according to media reports. 

Reuters also cited the director general of the games organizer's technology department that the main function of the My2022 app is to monitor people's health and that the country follows strict rules to protect data. The person further noted that all of the app's technology systems have been validated by relevant app stores. 

The app was developed by Beijing Financial Holding Group Co and has a rating of 3.7 points out of 5 on the IOS app store. The company has not responded to an interview request from the Global Times as of press time. 

Global Times