Mycouponportal
A few days ago, a British techie noticed that his OnePlus handset was sending data to certain domains in the background. After a thorough investigation, he found out that the phone was sending details such as IMEI, phone number, MAC address, mobile network names, and wireless network SSID to OnePlus. This information also included logs that would tell the company minute details such as when the phone was locked or unlocked.
Now, OnePlus’ co-founder Carl Pei has finally broken the silence. He starts off with a standard line, “We take our users – and their data privacy – very seriously”. And the Earth is flat (no, he didn’t say that). According to Pei, data collection is an industry practice. OnePlus collects “usage analytics to better understand general phone behavior and optimize OxygenOS for a better overall user experience.” He claims that some of this information also helps in providing better after-sales support. So, the goal is to improve the product and service.
In a blog post, he reluctantly accepts that the company was collecting telephone numbers, MAC addresses, and Wi-Fi information. Pei, then clarifies that OnePlus will put an end to this practice by the end of October. Moreover, the OxygenOS will now notify users about the user experience programme during the setup wizard. A user can then choose to opt in or out of this programme. This incident definitely puts OnePlus in a bad light. However, the users need not panic as whatever data OnePlus was trying to harvest is most likely already sitting with Google anyway.
At least, the Chinese company didn’t drive by your house to steal data like the search giant. Still, it’s not a good practice to collect user data without notifying them. Also, there’s no need to collect data that can be connected to a phone number or an IMEI number. What are your thoughts on data collection?
Mycouponportal
News