Hugo Barra Clears Up Xiaomi Redmi Note Data Collection Allegations

According to an earlier report, it had been revealed that the Xiaomi Redmi Note had been sending user data back to China. Naturally this was a huge cause of worry for users as no one likes having their user data being shared without their permission, right? Well Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra (formerly of Google) has since come forward to answer some questions.

According to Barra, he claims that Xiaomi’s handsets (via the MIUI launcher) requests public data from Xiaomi’s servers from time to time. This data includes “thousands of jokes, holiday greetings and poems” and does not constitute the secret uploading of photos and text messages to Xiaomi’s servers.

He also goes on to remind users that they have the option of disabling services like the Mi Cloud if they do not wish to have their phone’s data being stored on Xiaomi’s servers. According to Barra, “Xiaomi is serious about user privacy and takes all possible steps to ensure our Internet services adhere to our privacy policy. We do not upload any personal information and data without the permission of users.”

Some commenters on Barra’s post have pointed out that there are plenty of other sites and services we use that already collect data on us, such as Facebook and Google, so why should Xiaomi be any different, assuming that they are collecting data (which they claim they don’t, at least not without explicit permission from the user). In any case what do you guys think? Does this help assuage your fears?

 

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Xiaomi