Is Xiaomi Phones Secretly Stealing Personal Data?
BANGALORE: Chinese smartphone brand, Xiaomi is believed to be secretly sending personal information to a server in China, reports Deccan Chronicle.
When the device is switched on, it could be communicating with three different masters, the company that built it, the telephone company it connects to, and the developers of any third party applications you installed on the device, or were pre-installed before you bought it.
All these companies could have programmed the device to send data to them over a wireless or cellular network with or without the user's knowledge or approval.
However, in Xiaomi’s case, as soon as a user boots up his device, it starts sending personal data 'back home'.
This, Xiaomi said, was to allow users to send SMS messages without having to pay operator charges by routing the messages through Xiaomi's servers. To do that, the company said, it needed to know the contents of users' address books.
Xiaomi revealed that it fixed the problem by seeking users' permission first and only sending data over encrypted connections.
However, Xiaomi is not alone in collecting data from your phone as soon as you switch it on. Handsets makers may also be collecting information from your location when you switch on the phone.
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