Smartphones delivered by Apple, Xiaomi and other manufacturers have been found in violation of the privacy laws of Taiwan, collecting data about their users and sending it back to the companies’ servers, according to a local government regulator cited by PC World. The regulator has been examining the above mentioned smartphones since this August to find out if they are compliant with the applicable laws. The preliminary findings revealed yesterday by the National Communications Commission (NCC) of Taiwan show that 12 phone models are in violation of the current Taiwanese privacy rules.
The Commission’s vice chairman Yu Hsiao-Cheng said that almost every smartphone included in the investigation will register with its company’s servers, but did not elaborate the specific findings. Both Apple and Xiaomi were named during the commission session when the findings were revealed, but the rest of the problematic vendors were not listed. The whole investigation was started after a Taiwanese legislator has expressed its concerns about Xiaomi, the largest smartphone manufacturer in mainland China. According to Chiu Chih-Wei, the popular Android devices shipped by the company send customer data back to Xiaomi’s servers without having the permission of the user to do so. Xiaomi apologized for the issue back then, and promised to make changes in its software. The company’s handsets are still being sold in Taiwan, despite the concerns expressed by the legislators. Apple’s handsets act in a similar fashion.
Xiaomi is the third largest smartphone manufacturer of the world, with its headquarters in Beijing. It has over 3,000 employees. Its business model – selling its handsets at a very low price and mostly online – has gained it a wide recognition in mainland China at first (where it is the best selling smartphone manufacturer), and has helped it to conquer other markets as well. The majority of Xiaomi’s products are manufactured by Inventec and Foxconn (the same manufacturer which makes the iPhone).