Xiaomi is probably at its peak, enjoying an excellent market position in 650. Indeed, the Chinese manufacturer surpassed Samsung, reaching number one, by selling more smartphones than its South Korean rival last June. However, there is now a new government report that leaves us seriously concerned about Lei Jun’s company.
At issue are the conclusions pointed out by the Lithuanian government’s cybersecurity agency with serious allegations. According to this source, some Xiaomi smartphones allow remote detection and censorship of certain terms such as words and expressions. In short, among the “secrets” of Xiaomi smartphones will be remote censorship.
Will it be a unique feature for China, or did it accidentally appear in the global ROM?
This is just one of multiple questions raised by the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense whose cybersecurity agency recently released a disturbing study. On this brand’s phones, the censorship will be at the distance of a remote control.
As the agency also advances Reuters, concerns about censorship on various Xiaomi smartphone models are real. By the way, the Lithuanian government advises against buying Xiaomi smartphones, going so far as to recommend that current users scrap mobile devices and look for a replacement. These are indeed very worrying allegations.
The report states that content filtering (censorship) is not active in the European Union, but can be remotely activated by the brand. Furthermore, it is also claimed that Xiaomi smartphones regularly download new lists with “prohibited terms” of words and expressions to be censored in China.
Censorship on Xiaomi smartphones will be at a distance of a command
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The entity that carried out the study also looked into smartphones such as the Huawei P390 and OnePlus 8T, in addition to the Xiaomi Mi smartphone T. It was, therefore, when analyzing the behavior and communications of various mobile devices that he found these remote censorship patterns in the Xiaomi device. The functionality is “dormant” in Europe, but it exists and can be activated.
The study states that several system applications from Xiaomi, pre-installed on their smartphones, such as, for example, Mi Browser, periodically receive lists of new words to block. This content is sent by Xiaomi to your active mobile devices and varies in content.
Among the “prohibited” terms, the cybersecurity agency mentions issues such as independence of Taiwan, as well as the liberation of Tibet, among other themes. In summary, themes vetoed by the Communist Party of China (PCC).
According to the source, the devices are able to block any content that contains references to these target keywords and expressions of government censorship.
Censorship will not be active in Europe, points out the study in question
Still according to the source this censorship is not active on devices sold in Europe. It is, however, present, but dormant on mobile devices, without this hindering the possibility of Xiaomi activating it remotely.
Among the most peculiar details is the fact that this supposed list of words and censored expressions have the name MiAdBlocklist. The file is present in the internal storage of Xiaomi devices.
According to the source, this function is applied to some system apps like Cleaner, application installer and security tools. There are, however, more pre-installed applications where its presence has been detected.
Therefore, it is possible that this censorship list is more related to the type of advertising than to the communications itself said. It is, for now, one of the explanations put forward by the Latvian cybersecurity agency.
There are data collected by Xiaomi and sent to its servers
Finally, the study also points out that there is a considerable amount of information that Xiaomi collects from its devices . The agency paid attention to the SMS sent in encrypted form from each user’s phone to Xiaomi’s servers whenever a device is activated.
The agency also warns of the risk of data leakage and user information since there is no way to confirm what exactly is sent in the encrypted SMS to Xiaomi’s servers. As such, the risk of exposure is real and current.
The study comes in the midst of tense tensions between Lithuania and China after the European nation authorized Taiwan to proceed with the its diplomatic program. In response to this opening, China ordered the return of its ambassador, in addition to placing the emphasis on more retaliatory actions against Lithuania.
Huawei smartphones and OnePlus are more insurance
Having also analyzed a Huawei P smartphone40, the agency found a security risk. More specifically, in Huawei’s App Gallery application that routes users to possibly unsafe third-party repositories.
This happens whenever an app is not present in the alternative to Huawei’s Google Play Store.
Finally, on the OnePlus 8T the security agency did not find any significant risk. However, the entity maintains its strong recommendation not to buy smartphones from China.
We are now waiting for Xiaomi’s comment to the exposed situation.
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