VietNamNet Bridge – Many Vietnamese are concerned that Chinese mobile phone models have spyware which sends users’ personal information to servers in China without giving any warning in advance.

Vietnamese protect themselves from Chinese spy technologies

On July 19, Vietnamese learned that Redmi Note, a Chinese Xiaomi’s smartphone model, contained spyware. Some days later, they heard that not only Xiaomi’s products, but many Chinese mobile devices available in the Vietnamese market contain spyware as well.

So Hoa, a website updating technology news site, reported that when conducting experiment with a Redmi Note device, the smartphone always creates the connection to the IP address 42.62.xx.xx. The address has been defined as connecting with a server located in China.

The same experiments carried out with the other two Chinese smartphone models available in Vietnam also showed the same results. They also sent information to the servers in China, but displayed other IP addresses.

Xiaomi admitted in China Post that Redmi Note automatically connected servers in China and uploaded information to the servers. However, it said its devices do not send personal information, but send information about users’ operations, which help it upgrade the products.

However, TechNews, a Taiwanese website has cited its sources as saying that Redmi Note has been sending messages, images and other personal information to the servers in China.

Nguyen Ngoc Trung, a representative of HTC Vietnam, commented that collecting users’ information is a method many mobile device manufacturers use to learn about users’ tastes.

However, he said prestigious manufacturers always let customers know in advance and take necessary measures to ensure information security.

HTC models, for example, in default format, do not have the function of collecting users’ information. The function can only be activated by users when they set up devices.

“What I can see is that the manufacturer (Xiaomi), at least, does not respect customers,” he said.

All three Chinese phone models tested by So Hoa were seen automatically connecting with the servers in China and sending information to the servers without any notice in advance. Meanwhile, Apple, Samsung and HTC always ask for customers’ confirmation before sending information to servers.

It is still unclear for why the Chinese smartphones send users’ information to servers, how the information is used, and if the information is encoded during the transmission.

A question has been raised about why Xiaomi smartphones only send data to servers in China when the device on a wifi connection is automatically interrupted when users connect to mobile networks.

TechNews quoted its sources as saying that by doing this, the Chinese manufacturer hopes users will not discover that their information is stolen.

Trung said in general, smartphones send information to manufacturers only when devices are connected to wifi to avoid costs for users, and Xiaomi’s devices may operate with the same principle.

However, Trung said there is something suspicious about the fact that the devices keep connecting to the servers in China during the entire usage time.

In the past, Chinese Star N9500 installed software to automatically copy personal information and record users’ calls.

VNE