It's no secret that companies love our data. We've seen people getting enraged with various companies from social networks like Facebook to smartphone manufacturers like Huawei. At the moment, Xiaomi is a little bit suspicious as well.
The reason being that a security researcher managed to sort of track the information that was being sent from his Xiaomi phone to Xiaomi's servers and came across a disturbing realization. More about that down below!
Is Xiaomi Collecting Data from Their Users?
The security researcher that we mentioned above is working with Forbes - one of the biggest journalism/tech-related websites that there are at the moment. So, it's definitely a sort of reliable source.
The aforementioned researcher is using a Redmi Note 8 as his daily smartphone - one of the best at this price point.
After decrypting outgoing data, he quickly came to notice that the phone is sort of "tracking" and sending all kinds of data. This includes anything from websites and music preferences (on the default music app) all the way down to screens, folders, and even settings.
Of course, the same sort of tracking behavior was discovered in the ROMs of other Xiaomi devices such as the Mi 9T and Mi 10 as well.
All that information was being sent to servers in Russia and Singapore. But, their domains are being hosted in Beijing in China.
Xiaomi says that all this information is misleading and simply not true and that all data are anonymized.
The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
Xiaomi may be denying the accusations. But, most of us can't deny that there is a chance they are true. After all, as we mentioned at the beginning, this isn't the first time we see this kind of data collection.
In fact, there are numerous companies that are showing similar behavior. This also includes tech-titans such as Google and Facebook.
Cookies are constantly being placed on your device from everywhere. That's how many websites know what you have been trying to buy lately. And things get even worse if you consider that many of the services you're using are often "tied" to the same company. We're talking about Android, Google, YouTube, Google Play, etc.
And, sure, things have been getting much better with Android 10's privacy options and websites being forced to ask us about using cookies. Still, all we're trying to say is that using any modern phone without providing some data to companies is impossible.
Sure, Xiaomi probably needs to take a step back - but the same applies to all others.
Even something like an iPhone with its closed ecosystem needs to connect to the Internet. Even iOS needs to get access to Google and YouTube.
At the end of the day, it's not about Xiaomi and other brands. It's not even about Android VS other operating systems. We'd say it's about the whole system that's broken in probably more ways than one.
"The degree is arbitrary - the definition is blurred. But if I am to choose one evil and another, I'd rather not choose at all". The problem is that if you choose to live in modern society, picking your poison is a necessity. Be it Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, an iPhone, or anything.
Closure
That's all for now. Feel like we forgot to mention something important? Got anything wrong? Then let us and everyone else know about it in the comments section down below!
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