A new research it shows that the makers of the best Chinese Android smartphones, collect an alarming amount of personal data by device users in China
China is the largest smartphone market in the world and over 70% of devices traded in the country, run on Android operating system. A new study done by researchers of University of Edinburgh and by Trinity College Dublin, found that the companies' smartphones OnePlus, Xiaomi and Oppo Realme sold in China, collect and transmit large portions of personal data from device users to various Servers without users' consent.
This investigation only concerns phones sold in China, which have a large number of various system apps and third-party Developers pre-installed with dangerous operating system privileges, which are even enabled by default. This allows these apps to collect and transmit identifiable information related to a device's unique identifiers, such as the user's location, profile and social relationships of the device owner.
The study revealed that even though the device owner opted out of the analytics collected by the device and never used any cloud storage or any of the optional third-party app developer services, their device continued to collect data, often without even knowing it.
The information collected by devices in China is usually the following:
- The unique identifiers of the devices, such as IMEI number and MAC address
- Location identifiers, such as GPS coordinates, which may reveal the user's current location
- Settings and information related to the device user, such as phone number, app usage patterns, and app performance data
- Social data such as call and SMS history and contact numbers stored on devices.
Users of the devices in China are never notified of this data transmission and there is no way to opt out of it.
This data can easily be de-identified to identify an individual and used to track them. Users' personally identifiable information (PII) is usually sent to device vendors, Chinese network operators (regardless of whether they have inserted a SIM card or not) and to service providers such as Baidu.
This research was conducted on Smartphones sold in China that have Chinese versions of Android pre-installed, so consumers in international markets need not worry. However, there are some consumers who bought their devices in China, such as business travelers and students, who should be careful, as the survey found that the collection of their personal data continues even after a user leaves. user from China.
Chinese versions of Android have three to four times more third-party Developer apps pre-installed and are granted eight to ten times more permissions than their international counterparts (Global & EEA/EU) versions of Android, intended for consumers in Europe and other countries.
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1 comment
We are not being watched by China because we are being watched by the CIA, the NSA, the FBI, Mosant, etc., etc.