According to The Register, three experts, Haoyu Liu of the University of Edinburg, Douglas Leith of Trinity College Dublin and Paul Patras of Edinburgh, jointly conducted a study showing that Chinese smartphones contain a lot of software according to track unauthorized users.
Specifically, a scientific report called “Android OS Privacy Under the Loupe – A Tale from the East” of the three experts above has carried out experiments on the three most popular Chinese phones today, Oppo OnePlus, Xiaomi and Oppo Realme.
Scientists have focused on studying the core system as well as the default applications to remove the software that users install themselves later.
The Experiment Assumes That Users Refuse to Provide
Personal data to the software, not using cloud data as well as other 3rd party services. At the same time, users do not open any accounts on any platform of the Android operating system provider.
Usually newly purchased smartphones will Security Commodity Brokers Email List include default applications of the Android operating system, distributors and 3rd party software providers.
The above study shows that the phone versions of Oppo and Xiaomi contain more than 30 default software of 3rd party suppliers from China.
For example, Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 has default Chinese applications that collect information such as Baidu Input, IflyTek Input or Sogou Input.
On the Oppo OnePlus 9R and Oppo Realme Q3 Pro, there is a Baidu Map running in the background to locate the user’s location. Then there are the countless default news, video, and online shopping apps from China.
Research by the above three experts shows that these Chinese phones send a large amount of Personal Information (PII) not only to 3rd parties but also to service providers like Baidu, and then to third parties. Chinese telecommunications companies.
Going Abroad is Not an Escape
The test shows that these phones continuously provide user information to 3rd parties in China even if they do not have a SIM or are using other telecommunications services abroad.
“The data we observed shows that these get CMB Directory to smartphones transmit data about device identifiers, MAC addresses, GPD coordinates location, mobile network IDs, user profiles, phone numbers, habits app usage, social media links , call history, messages, contacts, etc.
This leaked information poses great risks to users as well as facilitates further monitoring if desired.
This is especially dangerous in countries where registration of telecommunications by citizen’s identity is required”, the study of 3 experts clearly statd.
