OnePlus accused of stealthily collecting user data, company responds
Synopsis
Researcher claims the company is collecting details such as phone number, IMEI number, mobile serial number, MAC address, mobile network names, and battery status. OnePlus has responded stating it is to improve services, but can be disabled.
OnePlus seems to be in troubled waters yet again. A security researcher claims that the OnePlus 2 sends certain user patterns to the company's server. This is done without the user's permission.
Researcher Christopher Moore said that the company is collecting details such as phone number, IMEI number, mobile serial number, MAC address, mobile network names, and battery status. He claims that other data related to usage pattern was also collected such as when the user locks the device, unlocks and also abnormal reboot. The company has now responded and says that it does so to improve its service. And, the data transmission can be switched off.
Responding to AndroidPolice, OnePlus said, "We securely transmit analytics in two different streams over HTTPS to an Amazon server. The first stream is usage analytics, which we collect in order for us to more precisely fine tune our software according to user behaviour. This transmission of usage activity can be turned off by navigating to ‘Settings’ -> ‘Advanced’ -> ‘Join user experience program’. The second stream is device information, which we collect to provide better after-sales support."
A Twitter user claimed that it can be permanently disabled.
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