A new study published by Gizmodo has found that the best Android phones sold in China are riddled with spyware. The study found that expensive Android phones sold in China are a complete privacy nightmare.
A new study shows that users of the best-selling Android devices in China are being robbed of their personal data on a massive scale. The theft of their personal data that occurs without prior notice or consent can easily lead to users being constantly tracked and their identity easily exposed.
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A study published by computer scientists from several different universities found that phone manufacturers such as Xiamoi, OnePlus and Oppo Realme, which are among the most popular phone manufacturers in China, collect huge amounts of sensitive user data through their operating systems, as well as various pre-installed applications on phones.
The data is also collected by a variety of other individuals, and the researchers fear that the devices in question “send an alarming amount of personal information not only to the device provider, but also to service providers such as Baidu and mobile network operators. in China.” Given the close relationship between private business and the Chinese government, this is more than enough to raise wider concerns about surveillance of mobile phone users in China.
The study found that Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are suffering from service outages at the same time.
Researchers clearly have some work to do when it comes to respecting the privacy of Chinese users. “Overall, our findings paint a disturbing picture of the state of user privacy in the world’s largest Android marketplace and highlight the urgent need for stronger privacy controls to increase ordinary people’s trust in technology companies, many of which are partly state-owned. “
The researchers experimented with a number of devices purchased from manufacturers in China and performed network analysis on them to understand the leaked data. In general, the researchers assumed that the device operator would be a “privacy-conscious consumer” who chose not to send analytics and personalization data to service providers and not use cloud storage or “other optional third-party services.”
The collected personal information includes very sensitive data, including basic user information such as phone numbers and persistent device identifiers, geolocation data, data related to “social connections” such as contacts and their phone numbers, metadata phones and text, both were found to be studied.
In other words, the recipients of this data will have a very clear idea of who is using a particular device, where they are doing it, and who they are talking to.
Gizmodo has reached out to the respective phone manufacturers to request a comment. At the time of publication of this report, no response had been received from them.
