Budget mobile phone Xiaomi has been getting flack for privacy issues for the past two days after several news reports have said that the devices have been sending out user details to their remote servers. The Chinese mobile Internet company has come out with a statement and an immediate solution to address the concerns of their smartphone users.
Xiaomi users don’t just get a smartphone, but also a free cloud messaging service as part of its MIUI operating system. As soon as a device is turned on, the service is automatically turned on so that the users can already get free SMS service by using the SIM and device identifiers, like phone number, IMSI and IMEI. While Xiaomi denies that the user information and phonebook details are sent to their servers, they have decided to make MIUI cloud messaging an opt-in service. They said that their “top priority” is to ensure that user data is protected and so it has been decided to not automatically activate the service.
To test whether allegations regarding this privacy violation are true, F-Secure decided to do a test on a “fresh out of the box” Xiaomi RedMi 1S. They did not set up an account or allow the cloud service to be activated. After inserting a SIM card, connecting to WIFi, turning on the GPS connection, they added one contact into the device’s phonebook. They also sent out an SMS and MMS and then made one phone call. When they checked the start-up, information from the phone, including the telco name, IMEI, owner’s phone number and the contact and SMS were sent to the server api.account.xiaomi.com. They did the same process after logging in to MiCloud, and sure enough, the IMEI and phone number were also forwarded, as well as the IMSI details.
The system update to Xiaomi devices is expected to come out on August 10 to implement the changes to the cloud messaging system. The service can still be enabled manually if the users choose to use the free messaging service. Let’s see if the privacy issue will be addressed with the update, as it is a major cause of concern for Xiaomi users, who have been growing in number this past few months.
SOURCE: Hugo Barra, F-Secure