Xiaomi Phone In India Sending Data To China Secretly - Indian Airforce

[ChillStar]

Indian Air Force warns against using Xiaomi phones

 

 

INDIATODAY.IN  NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 22, 2014 | UPDATED 17:57 IST

 

 

 

There have been privacy and security concerns around Xiaomi phones in the past but now Indian Air Force (IAF) is reportedly warning against using the devices manufactured by the Chinese company. According to a report by the Sunday Standard, the IAF has told its officers and their families not to use Xiaomi devices, citing security concerns. The IAF reportedly suggests that Xiaomi devices send data to an agency which reports to the ministry of information industry in China.

The IAF, according to the report, issued the advisory on the basis of information obtained from the Indian Computer Response Team, which also confirmed that Xiaomi phones send back data to China.

But at the moment it is not clear if the Response Team had obtained the information from its own internal testing or from a few third-party reports several weeks ago that claimed Xiaomi devices were sending data to Chinese servers without user permission. Xiaomi had denied those claims and had said that as part of its cloud services, the phone might have been sending some data to its computing centres in China.

Xiaomi has been accused of doing the same in Taiwan, and the government there is investigating the situation.

Earlier, security software maker F-Secure claimed that the Xiaomi Redmi 1S smartphone was sending back data to servers in China. Xiaomi said that its Mi Cloud service was enabled by default and then it made amends by pushing out a software update that disabled the service by default and making it an opt-in.

The IAF in its note mentioned many instances of Xiaomi phones and tablets sending back data to China. It cited a Hong Kong based user who claimed that the Redmi Note phone was automatically connecting to servers in China and sending back photos, and messages.

Previously, even the Doctorate General of Military operations of the Indian army had issued a similar warning for a Chinese mobile app. The army reportedly claimed that the location sharing feature in the app was fraudulently transmitting data to China

 

[ChillStar]

Our phones are safe, IAF notice based on two-month-old report: Xiaomi

INDIATODAY.IN  NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 23, 2014 | UPDATED 13:51 IST

 

 

 

A day after the reports that Indian Air Force asked its officers and their families not to use Xiaomi phones citing privacy and security concerns, Xiaomi said that its phones were completely safe and that it had addressed the similar issues raised earlier in a satisfactory manner.

Hugo Barra, the company's vice president for international markets, clarified that the data that Xiaomi phone occasionally sent to Chinese servers was related to the company's cloud services. These services were opt in and could be turned off by users, he said. This is similar to how Android and iPhones send data required for their services to the data centres based in the US or other countries.

"We offer various Internet-based services such as Mi Cloud and Cloud Messaging which require data to be stored in the cloud. We take rigorous precautions to ensure that all data is secured when uploaded to Xiaomi servers and is not stored beyond the time required. Users will always be notified beforehand in situations when we require your personal information, and will have to approve the request," sad Barra. "Mi Cloud and Cloud Messaging are opt-in services which users can turn on and off at any time, giving users complete control."

He added that the IAF circular was most likely based on a two-month-old report. "We believe the advisory circular issued by IAF is based on events about two months back.  It refers to the F-Secure test done on the Redmi 1S in July 2014 about the activation of our Cloud Messaging service (which enables users to send text messages for free). We immediately addressed the concerns raised, which was directly acknowledged by F-Secure 4 days later," he said.

Manu Jain, who heads the Xiaomi team in India, added that the company was committed to keep user data safe. "We are extremely cautious about protecting user data; we have 100 per cent compliance with all local laws, including the ones related to data security," He said. "We are keen to clarify that Xiaomi is serious about user privacy and takes all possible steps to ensure our Internet services adhere to our privacy policy. We do not upload any personal information and data without the permission of users."  

The privacy concerns around Xiaomi phones have been raised as earlier as well. But in most cases, it seems the data probably shared with servers in China to facilitate some services. Barra said that assuage privacy fears, Xiaomi is working to move out data centres from China. The move is crucial because as the company expands globally, governments across the world may want it to store user data locally.

"Since early 2014, we have been migrating our services and corresponding data for Indian users from our Beijing data centers to Amazon AWS data centers in Singapore and USA.  This migration will be fully completed by the end of the year," Barra said. "This helps improve the performance of our services and also provide some peace of mind for users in India in ensuring that we treat their data with the utmost care and will always maintain the highest privacy standards."

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/technology/story/our-phones-are-safe-iaf-notice-based-on-two-month-old-report-xiaomi/1/397237.html

[ChillStar]

LTT

[ravula]

Chinkis

[Betting Bangarraju]

recent ga ilantide edo chesaru ga chinki's hacked icloud data, private data etc.

[sigsegv]

lol cheapp china phone users ..