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China Smartphone Maker Xiaomi Apologizes For Unauthorized Data Access
SpzToid writes Following up an earlier story here on Slashdot, now Xiaomi has apologized for collecting private data from its customers. From the article: "Xiaomi Inc said it had upgraded its operating system to ensure users knew it was collecting data from their address books after a report by a computer security firm said the Chinese budget smartphone maker was taking personal data without permission. The privately held company said it had fixed a loophole in its cloud messaging system that had triggered the unauthorized data transfer and that the operating system upgrade had been rolled out on Sunday. The issue was highlighted last week in a blog post by security firm F-Secure Oyg. In a lengthy blogpost on Google Plus, Xiaomi Vice President Hugo Barra apologized for the unauthorized data collection and said the company only collects phone numbers in users' address books to see if the users are online."
Why is it considered okay to do this until you get caught? Then you apologize? How about not stealing the information in the first place for starters. Fuckwads!
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
"It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission." ...
We'll try to hide it better next time...
I prefer capitalist stooges stealing my personal information, rather than commie stooges. (stolen from Dr. Strangelove)
It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission, but never should be better.
A cheap high end smartphone. Apple couldn't do it, Nokia couldn't do it, Blackberry couldn't do it, Samsung couldn't do it, etc.
If you're not paying with dollars, you're paying with something else...
Me Chinese. Me play joke. Me put backdoors in your phone.
This is one of those childhood memories I wasn't aware I was happy to have forgotten. Thanks for bringing it back.
Soon I'll come across sitting Indian Style. Already saw the Troll in GotG. What more will I have the unjoyous reunion with?
...pride.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
www.facebook.com/DareDefendOurRights
www.fairtax.org
We are sorry we got caught.
In a lengthy blogpost on Google Plus, Xiaomi Vice President Hugo Barra apologized for the unauthorized data collection and said the company only collects phone numbers in users' address books to see if the users are online.
I realize there is some translation going on here, and that can sometimes lead to misinterpretation - but in what context can this possibly make any sense? Collecting phone numbers from your address book to see if you're online? Seriously?
#DeleteChrome
If you read the Google+ post, the apology is for the "concern" surrounding their actions, not for the actions themselves.
Why is it considered okay to do this until you get caught? Then you apologize? How about not stealing the information in the first place for starters. Fuckwads!
When an institution or a person does something right, I find it useful to commend them for it.
There may be many other things they can do right in the future, that they are doing wrong now. And there may be things done in the past that were profoundly wrong.
But they've still done a good thing.
In the United States, communications professionals (and the people they coach, like our politicians) avoid admitting when they are wrong, avoid even *engaging* in serious discussion, precisely because people so easily latch onto any words acknowledging another position and turn it into a sound byte. Attacking people who do the right thing for not doing more encourages them *not* to do the right thing in the first place.
Here, a company admitted it was wrong and apologized. It may or may not be disinformation to distract us from spying on behalf of the Chinese Government; and the company may or may not still be doing things we consider wrong. But the company's message was the right one, and they deserve praise for taking responsibility for a foul-up and acting to correct it.
I bought one of these a few months ago, and running a netstat one day I discovered some odd IPs, most of which turned out to be Google this or that, but one struck me as very odd, to a Chinese address. Can anyone tell me, why does my phone "phone home?"
Thats not a fucking loophole - a program doesn't accidentaly download and store phone numbers , it has to be programmed to do it - thats deliberate data stealing. Now we get the usual meaningless corporate humble apology routine which they hope will placate everyone until next time they get caught. Pathetic.
Well goddammit, you whiners. At least this company apologized and fixed the problem properly. How often these days we just get "[company name] declined to comment on the issue" and then we never hear from them again. Xiaomi's reaction in this case was much better.
I'm thinking that should probably be "Oyj", although that typo is not so easy to make (was it in the original article - how am I supposed to know? 'tis /.). But what that means (in Finnish, F-Secure is from .fi) is a public company. And whether the company is public or private is quite irrelevant in this context. Just call them F-Secure like everyone else.
I tell you why this guy is dishonest. Google Plus is blocked in China, where most Xiaomi phones are sold and being used. This means that they are apologizing only to the West, and only after the West caught them red handed. Their philosophy is that "we have to apology to the West since we want to sell phones to you, at the same time, let's try to hide this from our existing user base (the Chinese) for as long as possible and keep milking them." Never trust these cunning unscrupulous guys.
Dammit, now our ever-luvin friends over at the "Peoples Liberation Army Intergalactic Cyber Crime, and Correct Thoughts Accepted, Incorrect Thoughts Sent to the Retraining and Too Psychologically Damanged To Be In Mainstream Society Department" will need another way to analyse user data in order to maintain quality assurance, to make sure that citizens everywhere are speaking correct things about the government, that they are not speaking things that need correction. That foreign persons do not attempt to interfere with matters within China, and are adequately notified "This Is A Chinese Internal Matter"(tm). The PLA will have to work with the phone manufacturer to develop a new software (at phone manufacturers expense) that will allow proper auditing of users private data with (as stated), necessary supervision/correction as required.
Thank you for your cooperation
Now move along, nothing more to see here.
Its A Chinese Internal Matter(tm)
It's already found that the official "update" only fixes a tiny part of concern. They are still sending things to China
So they only know who you speak with.
One wonders what that information would be worth and to whom.
Was phone number collection a condition in exchange for guarantees of the company's success, or did the company, after the fact, realise it had an additional profit line as its customer base increased?
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
Why is it considered okay to do this until you get caught? Then you apologize? How about not stealing the information in the first place for starters. Fuckwads!
Because that has bcome a standard modern business practice. "We're really sorry we got caught (doing x), and we'll be just as sorry the next time we get caught." Since there are NEVER any consequences for those involved (such as prison time) the practice continues unabated. Another reason they get away with crap like this is public apathy. Remember Sony's RootKit music CD's? There wasn't even much of a public outcry because 98% of the population no longer really cares anymore.
The ruling chinese communist party forces backdoors on all chinese-made as well as chinese-owned electronic devices, so ofcourse xiaomi phones are no exception to passing all your communications to spies in beijing.
How about some consequences? Ordinary citizens would be thrown in jail for such behavior!