Zee Media Bureau/Rd. Alexander
New Delhi: Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone company might have taken the Indian smartphone market by storm but it now appears that its phones are not safe as they send data such as carrier name, phone number, IMEI and numbers from the phone to Beijing.
As per reports in leading dailies, the Indian Air Force has reportedly warned against using Xiaomi devices as it sends information and data of the user and the phone's contain to an agency which further reports it to the information industry of China.
According to reports, the IAF issued the warning on the basis of information obtained from the Indian Computer Response Team, which is also said to have confirmed that Xiaomi phones send data to China.
The IAF has also warned their officers and families from using the Chinese made devices.
According to a leading daily, a note by the Indian Air Force reads, “F-secure, a leading security solution company, recently carried out a test of Xiaomi Redmi 1s, the company’s budget smartphone, and found that the phone was forwarding carrier name, phone number, IMEI (the device identifier) plus numbers from address book and text messages back to Beijing.”
The note is said to have added, “According to the PhoneArena report, looking up the website of the company owning the IP address in the range 42.62.48.0-42.62.48.255 reveals that the website owner is www.cnnic.cn. CNNIC is the administrative agency responsible for Internet affairs under the Ministry of Information Industry of People’s Republic of China. It is based in the Zhongguancun high tech district of Beijing.”
This is not the first instance of Xiaomi facing allegations.
As per reports, the Taiwanese government is said to have started investigating in August on concerns that Xiaomi is a cyber security threat and said it will make a decision within three months.
