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This is pretty big.
Huawei and now Xiaomi are sending user data to Chinese servers which are of course linked to the Chinese Communist Party, or even worse, hacking, identity theft, credit card theft, etc the list goes on. I also wouldn't trust any other Chinese companies like Lenovo.
Huawei and Xiaomi are rising as big players in the smartphone market. Huawei, for example, ranked 3rd in Q2 2014 smartphone shipments behind Samsung and Apple. And some Americans seem to have been buying their products (uh oh).
IMO people should stick to Apple, Samsung, LG, Motorola, HTC, etc... companies that can be trusted. Chinese companies can not be trusted (yet). It will take a long time, possibly decades, for Chinese companies to be free from their puppet strings organized by the Chinese government.
http://www.androidheadlines.com/2014/07/rumor-xiaomi-redmi-note-accused-sending-personal-data-chinese-servers.html
Rumor: Xiaomi RedMi Note Accused Of Sending Personal Data To Chinese Servers
http://www.digit.in/mobile-phones/xiaomi-phones-covertly-send-user-data-to-china-report-23433.html
Xiaomi phones covertly send user data to China: report
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IMO people should stick to Apple, Samsung, LG, Motorola, HTC, etc... companies that can be trusted.
a little ironic
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No we shouldn't trust Carrier Rootkit (which is not a mobile phone manufacturer). There are many civil and criminal lawsuits that have been launched against them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_IQ
Another company that is doomed to fail. Huawei and Xiaomi should be boycotted until they can prove that personal information is not sent to these Chinese servers. Of course, this will be impossible to prove. That's why I will never trust Chinese brands when it comes to IT.
This is the cold, hard truth. They could be stealing your personal info, identity, credit cards, etc if you own a Huawei or Xiaomi phone. This is China, not America where the sole purpose of the NSA was to record and listen to various conversations. They are 2 completely different countries consisting of people with completely different interests.
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On July 30 2014 18:06 AutoEngineer wrote:No we shouldn't trust Carrier Rootkit (which is not a mobile phone manufacturer). There are many civil and criminal lawsuits that have been launched against them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_IQ
My point is the industry is such a free for all money grab that we shouldn't trust anybody, and no-one should be under the illusion that their mobile data is in any way safe or private.
Frankly if my data is being sent to someone else i wouldn't care whether it was the manufacturer of the phone or some third party developer, i would be equally as pissed off.
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On July 30 2014 18:09 Jockmcplop wrote:My point is the industry is such a free for all money grab that we shouldn't trust anybody, and no-one should be under the illusion that their mobile data is in any way safe or private. Frankly if my data is being sent to someone else i wouldn't care whether it was the manufacturer of the phone or some third party developer, i would be equally as pissed off.
Sending personal/business/government data of American users to the Chinese Communist Party presents a huge security threat to the USA. This is the primary concern. Remember, there are possibly businessmen and government workers in the USA who may have bought a Huawei or Xiaomi phone. It doesn't just concern the public.
Also, if these "Chinese servers" are linked to hackers, then this would be a concern for the people who bought a Huawei and Xiaomi phone. Identity theft and credit card theft are rampant in China.
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konadora
Singapore66071 Posts
pretty sure its safer than NSA amirite
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On July 30 2014 17:54 AutoEngineer wrote:
IMO people should stick to Apple, Samsung, LG, Motorola, HTC, etc... companies that can be trusted. Chinese companies can not be trusted (yet).
Feel free to distrust Chinese companies. But then, what makes you say the companies you named are trustworthy? Did you miss the whole NSA scandal?
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No one should be terribly surprised by this, people have suspected Lenovo of similar things.
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So the choice is NSA or the Chinese communists ? Pretty hard one.
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@OP: What the article says is that the collected data is sent back to China. Well these are Chinese company, should they upload their data to another country just to make you happy? Unlike other several scandals in the past with other manufacturers or Google, there is no evidence yet that the phone transmits anything more than anonymous preferences statistics.
From the article you linked yourself:
The auto-backup feature also apparently comes disabled according to Xiaomi, so the collection of preference calculation is something that sounds like it has to be enabled by the user in the first place, which could be exactly what happened in this scenario. In short, we shouldn’t be rushing to burn anyone at the stake.
Of course you are free to boycott those brands, but your post really looks anti-Chinese, and you conveniently decide to ignore the NSA scandal while saying Apple and Samsung are to be trusted. Maybe it was not done on purpose, the way I read it, it is suggesting that Huawei and Xiaomi are very elaborate scams by the Chinese government to steal Americans' credit cards numbers.
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East Gorteau22261 Posts
If memory serves, Samsung is one of the world's most corrupt companies. Further, what Huawei and Xiaomi are doing doesn't seem very different from what several other cellphone manufacturers did in the US. That others are doing the same doesn't mean that we should all up and trust these two companies, but looking to a company like Apple or Samsung and expecting a trustworthy company that will keep your mobile data private is also foolish.
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On July 30 2014 18:13 AutoEngineer wrote:Show nested quote +On July 30 2014 18:09 Jockmcplop wrote:On July 30 2014 18:06 AutoEngineer wrote:No we shouldn't trust Carrier Rootkit (which is not a mobile phone manufacturer). There are many civil and criminal lawsuits that have been launched against them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_IQ My point is the industry is such a free for all money grab that we shouldn't trust anybody, and no-one should be under the illusion that their mobile data is in any way safe or private. Frankly if my data is being sent to someone else i wouldn't care whether it was the manufacturer of the phone or some third party developer, i would be equally as pissed off. Sending personal/business/government data of American users to the Chinese Communist Party presents a huge security threat to the USA. This is the primary concern.
You have got to be kidding me.
How is this any different than the USA getting all this information unlawfully from all of its supposed allies?
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On July 30 2014 19:32 Zealously wrote:
If memory serves, Samsung is one of the world's most corrupt companies. Further, what Huawei and Xiaomi are doing doesn't seem very different from what several other cellphone manufacturers did in the US. That others are doing the same doesn't mean that we should all up and trust these two companies, but looking to a company like Apple or Samsung and expecting a trustworthy company that will keep your mobile data private is also foolish.
Corrupt? Yes, of course. But corruption applies to all big, successful companies.
Apple was also accused of poor working conditions at Foxconn. Apple and other smartphone companies are just as corrupt as Samsung.
No big, successful company on the face of this world is not corrupt. They had to get to their position by cheating one way or another. Steve Jobs was a corrupt person, but all of this is censored by the American mainstream media. If you don't believe that the biggest companies of today are products of corruption and cheating, then you have not been exposed to the reality of the business world.
But there's a difference between corruption and hacking/theft/espionage.
The point of this thread is to discuss hacking/theft/espionage. While corruption is also an issue, that's not the main point of this thread.
On July 30 2014 19:39 SixStrings wrote:Show nested quote +On July 30 2014 18:13 AutoEngineer wrote:On July 30 2014 18:09 Jockmcplop wrote:On July 30 2014 18:06 AutoEngineer wrote:No we shouldn't trust Carrier Rootkit (which is not a mobile phone manufacturer). There are many civil and criminal lawsuits that have been launched against them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_IQ My point is the industry is such a free for all money grab that we shouldn't trust anybody, and no-one should be under the illusion that their mobile data is in any way safe or private. Frankly if my data is being sent to someone else i wouldn't care whether it was the manufacturer of the phone or some third party developer, i would be equally as pissed off. Sending personal/business/government data of American users to the Chinese Communist Party presents a huge security threat to the USA. This is the primary concern. You have got to be kidding me. How is this any different than the USA getting all this information unlawfully from all of its supposed allies?
If you're referring to the NSA, then the NSA pertains to mainly within US borders.
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East Gorteau22261 Posts
I know the difference very well, but what is the difference between the US hacking and spying and China doing the same? Both countries are gathering this type of information to get whatever upper hand they can, but I don't understand your apparent willingness to forgive the US while condemning China for doing the same thing.
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On July 30 2014 19:46 Zealously wrote:
I know the difference very well, but what is the difference between the US hacking and spying and China doing the same? Both countries are gathering this type of information to get whatever upper hand they can, but I don't understand your apparent willingness to forgive the US while condemning China for doing the same thing.
Well for starters, I'm American and I'm much more sensitive about China stealing my personal information compared to the NSA, a subset of the US government, doing the same. The NSA was a huge scandal and even affects us to this day, however their spying was not directed at other countries and was not for corporate gain.
The Chinese on the other hand could be using this for corporate gain, identity theft and credit card theft. Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo all have ties to either the Chinese government or high level officials in the CCP. The Chinese government leaders and officials have financial interests in these companies.
This is the main difference between China (still largely a communist country when it comes to government-business relations) and the USA (and other capitalist/western countries).
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East Gorteau22261 Posts
In fact, the NSA did target other countries. I'm unclear on the exact extent of the NSA's spying on other countries (and I am writing this from my phone which makes googling sources difficult), but tapping the phone belonging to the German chancellor seems like the exact thing you are condemning China for doing. In case you haven't read much about it, you can read a little about PRISM here.
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Is there a TL/LD-Award for most ironic tread of the year? :D
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Netherlands45349 Posts
NSA or China
Choices, choices.
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EPT
