Xiaomi: mobile phone manufacturers should record the websites you visit

Researchers criticize extensive user tracking

Xiaomi is said to be monitoring its users. Security experts have found evidence that the Chinese manufacturer is recording the online and usage behavior of mobile phone users. The company is responding to software updates.

Serious allegations against Xiaomi, a Chinese mobile phone manufacturer. According to a report by Forbes magazine in the United States, the company should analyze the use of its mobile phones very carefully, and mention security researchers Gabriel Sirig and Andrew Tierney. Both parties independently checked the Xiaomi mobile phone and came to the same conclusion. Therefore, even if you use incognito mode or DuckDuckGo, a search engine focused on data protection, the pre-installed Xiaomi browser should record the websites you visit.

The researchers claim that the Mi browsers "Mi Browser Pro" and "Mint Browser" [available on Google Play respectively] also record your surfing behavior and send the data to the Chinese manufacturer. According to Xiaomi, the data should be anonymized and encrypted and should not be used to draw conclusions about individual users. Sirig and Tierney expressed doubts. According to her findings, encryption is very easy to crack. In addition to online behavior, Xiaomi also transmits data to the phone itself. This metadata will allow conclusions about individual users to be drawn.

The company has now released software updates for Mi Browser [Pro] and Mint Browser. Starting from version 12.1.4 [Mi Browser] or 3.43. [Mint] Users can turn off data collection in incognito mode.

That is the accusation Xiaomi said

Xiaomi once again emphasized in his blog post that users have explicitly agreed to collect data on their smartphones, the data is transmitted anonymously in encrypted form and is only used to improve the user experience. For example, a person wants to identify a website that loads slowly or crashes in an internal browser. Data will also be collected in accordance with the data protection regulations applicable in the country.

Xiaomi also uses Mi account and activated sync to collect browser data from users. If you use a Mi account to log in to another device, you can immediately use the browser history.

Interested in listening to music and daily life?

According to the Forbes report, Xiaomi should not only record the online behavior of its users, but also track it in other applications. According to Cirlig, the Xiaomi music player should record the songs you heard and when they played. According to the report, Cirlig also believes that Xiaomi will track the apps you use. Because every time he opens an application, a lot of data will be transferred to the server. But he has no evidence to prove this suspicion.

New smartphones in 2020

Watch now

It is not clear whether these allegations apply to all Xiaomi smartphones or only to some models. Researchers were able to prove this behavior on the following devices:

• Note for Xiaomi Redmi 8
• Xiaomi Mi 10
• Xiaomi Redmi K20 [Xiaomi Mi 9T in this country]
• Xiaomi Mi Mix 3

Xiaomi is now the fourth largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world after Samsung, Huawei and Apple. Since 2019, the company has also been active in Germany. In addition to mobile phones, Xiaomi also offers many other devices, such as the fitness tracker Xiaomi Mi Band 4.