A Forbes article was recently published on their website accusing Chinese tech company Xiaomi in collecting information, web domains, and even listing private 'incognito' data of their users. Apparently, the issue made a worldwide impact, but after a few days, Xiaomi has now released a statement regarding the issue and admits the accusations. However, the company stands that this collection of data is a necessity. Here's why.
Chinese phone Xiaomi collects your data-- Yup, they admitted it!
On Apr. 30, Forbes news website published a report allegedly pointing out the security flaws of Xiaomi's tech. As said, data of each Mi users are being collected every time. Each web domains, search engine queries, and every item on the Xiaomi's feed feature are all being harvested by the company.
Worse, even if a user sets the search engine websites to private 'incognito' mode, the data will still be saved on the Chinese company's database.
The data collected are said to be sent to remote servers hosted by another famous Chinese tech company, Alibaba.
On Saturday, May 2, Xiaomi finally clarified the accusations and admitted the claims. But, here's where Forbes got it wrong.
Xiaomi lashes against Forbes saying they're 'disappointed' with the report
Xiaomi is one of the most famous and producer of the cheapest smartphones around the world. This means that a lot of people are Mi users.
Based on the statement that the Xiaomi company released, the recent Forbes article was only a "misunderstood" article. The officials of the Chinese firm said that "user's privacy and internet security is of top priority at Xiaomi."
However, they admitted that they collect data from their users. Forbes, on the other hand, had mistaken to clarify that all websites or tech software do the same thing.
"The collection of aggregated usage statistics data is used for internal analysis, and we do not link any personally identifiable information to any of this data. Furthermore, this is a common solution adopted by internet companies around the world to improve the overall user experience of various products while safeguarding user privacy and data security," written on the official Xiaomi website.
The Chinese tech also clarifies that every data they collected from their users are "based on permission and consent given explicitly by its users."
If you're still worried about your data, Xiaomi said that the whole process of data collection is anonymous and encrypted-- meaning that it is hard to steal this info by non-owners.
The company, however, did not explain why even 'incognito' user data are being saved.
How to stop Xiaomi from snooping on your phone?
If you're owning a Xiaomi smartphone, here's what you have to do to stop it from saving your data.
According to Xiaomi, software updates of all of their device are now available online. These software updates include an option in incognito mode for all users of both browsers to switch on/off the aggregated data collection. And that's it!
