Shockingly Dangerous: Chinese Android Phones Laden with Spyware

New research published by Gizmodo has revealed that the best selling Android phones in China are full of spyware. The studio has proved that the high-end Android phones sold in China are a complete privacy nightmare.

New research indicates that users of the top-selling Android devices in China suffer large-scale personal data theft. Theft of their personal data, which occurs without notice or consent, can easily lead to continuous monitoring of users and easy exposure of their identities.

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One studio published by computer scientists from different universities has revealed that phone manufacturers like Xiamoi, OnePlus and Oppo Realme which are some of the most popular phone manufacturers in China, collect huge amounts of sensitive user data via their operating systems, as well as a variety of pre-installed apps on phones.

Data is also being collected from a variety of other private actors and researchers fear the devices in issue are “sending an alarming amount of personally identifiable information not only to the vendor of the device, but also to service providers such as Baidu and network operators mobile”. in China.” Given the close relationship between private industry and the Chinese government, it is more than enough to raise the specter of broader cell phone user surveillance concerns in China.

Research has indicated that Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube suffer from service outages all at the same time.

For the researchers, there is clearly work to be done when it comes to respecting the privacy of Chinese users. “Overall, our findings paint a troubling picture of the state of user data privacy in the world’s largest Android market and highlight the urgent need for tougher privacy controls to boost ordinary people’s trust in technology companies, many of which they are in part of state ownership. “

The researchers experimented with a variety of devices purchased from manufacturers in China and performed network analysis on them to understand the relevant data leak. In general, the researchers assumed that the device operator would be a “privacy-conscious consumer,” who opted not to send analytics and personalization data to service providers, and not to use cloud storage or “other optional third-party”.

The personally identifiable information collected includes things that are very sensitive, including basic user information such as telephone numbers and persistent device identifiers, geolocation data, “social connections” data – such as contacts and related telephone numbers, metadata and phone text, as detected studio.

In other words, the recipients of this data will have a very clear picture of who is using a particular device, where they are doing it and who they are talking to.

Gizmodo has reached out to their respective phone manufacturers for comment. No response has been received from them as of the date of publication of this report.