--FILE--Customers try out iPhone 5 smartphones at an Apple Store in Shanghai, China, 8 August 2013. Government employees should be banned from using iPhones, a web entrepreneur has suggested in a Global Times commentary. Fang Xingdongs article, published in the state mouthpiece on Monday (28 July 2014), came as US software giant Apple admitted that users personal data ¨C including text messages, photos and contact lists ¨C could be extracted from their iPhones through previously unpublicised methods. Fang, founder of IT think tank ChinaLabs.com, urged the Chinese government to stop overlooking the security risks of iPhones and to commission a third party to evaluate the severity of the problem and to come up with solutions. Party cadres, government officials, military staff and those involved with the nations key infrastructure should be banned from using Apple products, said Fang, who is also director of Zhejiang University of Media and Communications internet and social studies centre.
