In the smartphone industry, hardware configuration has become the main reference standard for people to choose a smartphone. But the experience of the software system is accompanied by the user’s longer time. The main reason why people favor Apple devices is also conditioned with the iOS software system. The open source nature of the Android system does not allow the various apps to be perfectly unified. So each collection vendor will conduct in-depth UI customization based on the underlying Android to enhance the user’s actual experience.
Most of the ndroid smartphone manufacturers directly use the native Android system, while Chinese smartphone manufacturers basically have their own system UIs, such as MIUI of Xiaomi Technology, Flyme of Meizu Technology, and Hydrogen OS of OnePlus Technology, etc. They are well recognized by users. Compared with the native Android system, it is more in line with the daily use habits of people, and the MIUI of Xiaomi Technology is a system UI that has been approved by users earlier.
Xiaomi Browser Collects Users Data
At the new product launch conference of Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite on April 27, Xiaomi Technology brought a new MIUI 12. In it, three functions built around user privacy and security-flares, interceptors, and hidden masks were well received by users. ‘The attention is very high. This function can record the background behavior of each app in detail. So it is joked by users that ‘the ‘light bomb’ has pulled off the shame of many third-party apps’.
However, Xiaomi Technology, which pays so much attention to protecting the privacy of users, has recently been accused by network security researchers. They have found that the web browser that comes with Xiaomi’s smartphone will collect the user’s browsing data in the background and send it to the remote server. It mainly includes data information such as the URL and history records visited by the user. And even if the user turns on the ‘incognito mode’ that can protect privacy, the behavior of collecting and sending data still exists.
Regarding this behavior of collecting and sending data, relevant researchers revealed that the models they tested include the latest Xiaomi Mi 10 and old models such as the Redmi Note 8, Redmi K20, and Xiaomi Mi MIX 3. The Android One system also uses its own MIUI. The behavior of Xiaomi’s own browser to collect and send data will exist. This will prove that this behavior has nothing to do with the system itself, but the behavior of Xiaomi’s browser.
The Official Response To Xiaomi Browser Data Collection News
Xiaomi Technology quickly made an official response to this. Xiaomi stated that user privacy and network security are very important things. However, as an Internet company, Xiaomi Technology collects and obtains this browsing information to improve the product experience. It is also one of the common solutions for Internet companies. At the same time, Xiaomi Browser collects this information anonymously. So it does not expose any user’s true identity and other information.
Xiaomi Technology’s statement of ‘anonymously collecting information such as web browsing by users’ has not been recognized, and then Xiaomi Technology updated the relevant instructions again, indicating that the function of the browser that comes with Xiaomi Collection has been updated. And the new version of the browser has been submitted to Google Play. The app store will be pushed to user updates after approval. And the new version of the browser will add the ‘reject data tracking collection’ function option. But whether this feature is turned on by default, will become the concern of these network security researchers.