OnePlus reportedly collects personal information from smartphone users

2. kiko007 (Posts: 5928; Member since: 17 Feb 2016)

"OnePlus has yet to respond to these allegations, but the fact that it tried to hide from the public this specific privacy issue may prove fatal for the company's brand image."

I don't know which is more shocking. That 1+ is collecting personal data, or that they had a brand image to uphold in the first place. What did you expect from a phone maker in mainland China? Oppo has been caught using a similar practice in the past as well, wonder if there is an overlap.

Having said my piece (peace?), I wouldn't worry too much about it as a 1+ owner. If they wanna peek at your selection of porn... let'em.

3. piyath (Posts: 1245; Member since: 23 Mar 2012)

This looks not good for Oneplus... Hope they fix this soon.

4. DavidDau (Posts: 22; Member since: 24 Oct 2016)

Backdoors are required by law for Chinese tech companies. OnePlus, Xiaomi, Huawei and Oppo all have adopted the law introduced by Chinese government. Nothing isn't transparent here.

6. Chuck007 (Posts: 1333; Member since: 02 Mar 2014)

I like Oneplus' products but it's just one of those unfortunate things beings based on Mainland China. Sure the market is HUGE but you'd only be successful if you cooperate with the CCP regime. It's basically one large, corporate conglomerate.

7. MrShazam (Posts: 585; Member since: 22 Jun 2017)

Nothing surprising based on the article. During initial setup of my mum's new OnePlus 5, there were terms and conditions detailing what OnePlus will be collecting, and I recall reading about device unlock events, abnormal reboots, serial number, IMPEI, phone numbers, MAC address, mobile network names, etc. information being collected.

BTW, apple also collects personal information from iphone users, so, what exactly is the difference here besides the brand name?

8. L0n3n1nja (Posts: 830; Member since: 12 Jul 2016)

Not a surprise to me, it's a budget flagship from a Chinese company. Even Lenovo has been caught spying on their users.

With that said, your cell phone carrier, internet service provider, Google, and Apple all collect a lot of information.

Honestly since Google now became Google Assistant, it's become increasingly obvious Google is watching everything I do with some of the push notifications I get recommending things to me.

12. Foxgabanna (Posts: 271; Member since: 11 Sep 2016)

Androids have been doing this for years!

14. Papa_Ji (Posts: 360; Member since: 27 Jun 2016)

Who knows what (American) Apple and Google are doing at OS level to steal users data.....

16. trojan_horse (Posts: 5664; Member since: 06 May 2016)

Damn, this might just put another nail in the OnePlus 5 coffin, as it's sales are already in red ink.

17. dimas (Posts: 2552; Member since: 22 Jul 2014)

And this is why I don't patronize huawei anymore. Good move oneplus, oppo, vivo or whatever your real branding is.

20. Zylam (Posts: 1197; Member since: 20 Oct 2010)

This isn't just a One Plus thing, it's an Android thing.

Remember that software carriers used to install on all Androids to collect user data?

I'm not surprised OEM'S are implementing their own ways to collect data.

It's not just phones, I've heard numerous times that LG collects data on their smart TV's of what people watch, I wouldn't be surprised if the other TV vendors do the same.

Doesn't bother me much, both my TV's are LG, they can collect all the data they want, but phones, there's way too much personal information on them and it's only going to increase.

Google's needs to create safeguards in Android that stop Oems from obtaining your personal information, but than again Google does the exact same thing.

It's also why there's no adblock in Chrome.

23. mootu (Posts: 21; Member since: 16 Mar 2017)

Google, Apple, Microsoft, all the carriers, your internet provider etc, they all do it and anyone who thinks otherwise is living in a dreamworld.

27. Plasticsh1t (Posts: 2559; Member since: 01 Sep 2014)

Let them watch at my porn collection. In the meantime, I'll find a way to turn off this mechanism. If I installed an AOSP rom will it prevent the data collection if anyone knows?