xiaomi secretly sending personal data to Chinese servers

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Suspicious-Teach8788

Lifer
Feb 19, 2001
20,155
23
81
Unoid said:
Source: http://en.ocworkbench.com/mobile-news/redmi-note-alleged-sending-photos-sms-china-servers-secretly/

Enjoy your cheaper Chinese xiaomis and oppo devices.

Xiaomi caught hard coding an app into their chips to copy and send your data back to China.

I called this out in the one plus one thread. Don't trust the Chinese phone companies.
Click to expand...
Your post is just clickbait.

The link is just clickbait.

I talked to Xiaomi Redmi owners and its an option to backup your SMS and photos to their cloud service. This is just like if a Chinese user used Google Photo backup or if Google had a decent cloud backup system to backup SMS. Would it be reasonable then to post a clickbait title like "Your Android phone secretly sends your photos to American servers?"

Furthermore, the option is an OPT IN feature. The default setting is OFF.

Did you even verify the souorce? The source is here: www.ima-mobile.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=39178 At no point did the source of this check what data is sent, only a connection is being made. That's pretty piss poor investigation if you ask me.

Also WTF is this you just wrote:

Xiaomi caught hard coding an app into their chips to copy and send your data back to China.
Click to expand...
Is that FUD or what? ITS CODED INTO THE CHIPS. RUN EVERYONE.
 
S

Suspicious-Teach8788

Lifer
Feb 19, 2001
20,155
23
81
I don't doubt that there could be something fishy going on, but simply seeing a connection with Chinese servers doesn't equal red flags.

There's plenty of apps and even ROMs (CM) that send anonymous data to their servers for data metrics/analytics. Sure I don't like it, but that's far different from spying on you. Also, the MiCloud backup allows you to restore all your texts when you wipe your phone or flash it. That's a pretty solid feature and beats using Titanium Backup to perform a data only restore of SMS/MMS storage, which half of the time results in an FC loop.

Storing your data on Xiaomi's servers is certainly a privacy concern, but that's just like any cloud backup service even in the US, given that the NSA can snoop on anything. Plus, its not like your texts aren't already read as they pass through your carrier anyway.

I think the interesting thing is that China is playing catchup real fast with the US and other international companies. They're rolling out flagship phones and offering cloud services too. While I'd be suspicious of China still, I highly doubt this is some mastermind plot by the Chinese government to monitor international traffic.
 
WelshBloke

WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
32,683
10,854
136
DLeRium said:
Also WTF is this you just wrote:

Is that FUD or what? ITS CODED INTO THE CHIPS. RUN EVERYONE.
Click to expand...

I can't speak for the veracity of the rumour but it was said to be uploading to the same servers even after flashing different roms.

Personally I think that it's FUD or an error in the backup app.

If the big bad red Chinese want to compromise every phone they make I would have thought that they would have coded backdoors into them rather than having billions of selfies uploaded to their servers.
 
A

A5

Diamond Member
Jun 9, 2000
4,902
5
81
WelshBloke said:
I can't speak for the veracity of the rumour but it was said to be uploading to the same servers even after flashing different roms.

Personally I think that it's FUD or an error in the backup app.

If the big bad red Chinese want to compromise every phone they make I would have thought that they would have coded backdoors into them rather than having billions of selfies uploaded to their servers.
Click to expand...

Also it's far easier for them (with a much lower chance of getting caught) to make Huawei or ZTE do it at the router level, NSA-style.
 
luv2liv

luv2liv

Diamond Member
Dec 27, 2001
3,500
94
91
privacy is just an illusion dudes.
if its not the chinese, its the NSA.
i will gladly buy a $300 phone from china than the $800 phone from others like sony. all i use the phone for is making voice call and sometimes check what time Home Depot closes on a sunday. i dont do banking and never take naked pictures of any family members any way.
 
S

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
9,427
16
81
luv2liv said:
if its not the chinese, its the NSA.
Click to expand...
Don't be foolish. It's *always* the NSA, because they're tapped into the actual backbone.

However, I'd rather not have my data going to the Chicoms too.
 
Unoid

Unoid

Senior member
Dec 20, 2012
461
0
76
"Interestingly, the Redmi Note was reportedly found transmitting data in the background even after being rooted or after being flashed with another firmware on top. OCWorkbench speculates that the transmission process had been hardcoded into the Xiaomi Redmi Note. The site noted that the company's cloud service called MiCloud was switched off during the testing"
http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/new...r-data-to-chinese-servers-567686?site=classic


Even when the cloud backup is off. It collects data.
 
Unoid

Unoid

Senior member
Dec 20, 2012
461
0
76
DLeRium said:
Your post is just clickbait.

The link is just clickbait.

I talked to Xiaomi Redmi owners and its an option to backup your SMS and photos to their cloud service. This is just like if a Chinese user used Google Photo backup or if Google had a decent cloud backup system to backup SMS. Would it be reasonable then to post a clickbait title like "Your Android phone secretly sends your photos to American servers?"

Furthermore, the option is an OPT IN feature. The default setting is OFF.

Did you even verify the souorce? The source is here: www.ima-mobile.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=39178 At no point did the source of this check what data is sent, only a connection is being made. That's pretty piss poor investigation if you ask me.

Also WTF is this you just wrote:

Is that FUD or what? ITS CODED INTO THE CHIPS. RUN EVERYONE.
Click to expand...

When it comes to the Chinese or any government. Its guilty until proven innocent.
 
taisingera

taisingera

Golden Member
Dec 27, 2005
1,141
35
91
As a US citizen, I would rather be spied on by China than the NSA. The Chinese really can't do anything to me. (Happy user of a Pipo Android tablet and ZTE Tracfone)
 
MongGrel

MongGrel

Lifer
Dec 3, 2013
38,466
3,067
121
Unoid said:
"Interestingly, the Redmi Note was reportedly found transmitting data in the background even after being rooted or after being flashed with another firmware on top. OCWorkbench speculates that the transmission process had been hardcoded into the Xiaomi Redmi Note. The site noted that the company's cloud service called MiCloud was switched off during the testing"
http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/new...r-data-to-chinese-servers-567686?site=classic


Even when the cloud backup is off. It collects data.
Click to expand...

Imagine that.
 
OBLAMA2009

OBLAMA2009

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2008
6,574
3
0
id be more concerned about the us gov spying on you. what is the chinese gov going to do with your info?
 
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