Chinese handset makers in the past have been accused of stealing
smartphone user information in numerous instances. Recently, a German
security firm even claimed
that a Chinese smartphone brand's smartphones came preinstalled with
spying software.
The latest in the series of claims against Chinese
smartphone manufacturers is the allegation that the popular brand,
Xiaomi - which recently marked
a successful entry into the Indian market this month, was stealing
user information stored in the Redmi Note smartphone.
OCWorkbench,
citing a Taiwanese publication,
suggested that the budget Xiaomi Redmi Note, which was announced for the Indian market alongside the Mi 3 was secretly sending data to a China-based server.
In
addition, a Hong Kong-based IMA Mobile user Kenny Li claims to have
tested the Redmi Note smartphone, and found it was automatically
connecting to an IP address hosted in China and sending data back when
connected to a Wi-Fi network. Li also claimed that the Xiaomi Redmi Note
was sending information to the Chinese server at a much lower data
transmission rate when connected to a 3G network.
Interestingly,
the Redmi Note was reportedly found transmitting data in the background
even after being rooted or after being flashed with another firmware on
top. OCWorkbench speculates that the transmission process had been hardcoded into the
Xiaomi Redmi Note. The site noted that the company's cloud service
called MiCloud was switched off during the testing.
According to
the OCWorkbench report, the data transmitted to the China server
included photos in media storage, and text messages. OCWorkbench notes
that this could be an 'automatic' backup of the user data on the Xiaomi
smartphone; although
this was done without an explicit permission from the device user.
We
are yet to hear an official comment from Xiaomi responding to the
allegations that the Redmi Note secretly sends user data to a
China-based server.
