China’s top spy agency is cracking down on unauthorized devices it says are being used to send flight tracking information to “foreign entities”, Report informs referring to South China Morning Post.

In a statement posted to its official WeChat social media account on Saturday, the Ministry of State Security said several foreign entities “have been using free aviation information-sharing devices as bait to recruit aviation hobbyists from Chinese social networks as ‘volunteers’”.

The ministry said those individuals had then illegally collected the flight data of Chinese aircraft and transmitted it to foreign organizations.

“National security authorities, in collaboration with relevant departments, have launched a nationwide special operation to address this issue,” it said.

The statement said hundreds of the devices had been seized and the individuals involved were penalized.

The ministry did not name the foreign organizations, but claimed they had deployed the devices in provinces surrounding the Bohai Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea.

“These devices are not only capable of stealing civilian aviation data but they can also intercept sensitive military aviation information,” it said.

According to the statement, the devices can be used to collect information from aircraft flying nearby, such as the type, location, speed and direction. It said this data was being sent to computers controlled by the foreign groups.