Consumers encouraged to throw away phones manufactured in China, Lithuania says

By Ahmad Alsayouf, Staff Reporter, The Pawprint

Research conducted on Tuesday found that one particular Xiaomi phone contains censorship tools built-in and many security faults with Huawei’s P40. Xiaomi’s Mi 10T 5G could censor about 450 terms, including, “Long live Taiwan independence” and “democracy movement”. Further research also found that the phone shifted user data to servers in Singapore.

A spokeswoman of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) stated, “Xiaomi’s devices do not censor communications to or from its users” and “Xiaomi has never and will never restrict or block any personal behaviours of our smartphone users, such as searching, calling, web browsing or the use of third-party communication software.

These features have been turned off for European models, but research suggest that these models still have the capability of switching on these features

The National Cyber Security Center in Lithuania stated, “This is important not only to Lithuania but to all countries which use Xiaomi equipment”.

Huawei is reported to also have cyber security problems with user downloads.

The Huawei P40 has several security flaws, putting users at risk of cyber-security breaches. The Lithuanian Ministry of Defence added, “The official Huawei application store AppGallery directs users to third-party e-stores where some of the applications have been assessed by anti-virus programs as malicious or infected with viruses”.

A Huawei employee replied, “Data is never processed outside the Huawei device”, and “AppGallery only collects and processes the data necessary to allow its customers to search, install and manage third-party apps, in the same way as other app stores”, he added.

Huawei also states that their phones are security-checked to guarantee future downloads are “apps which are safe”.

Recent reports say that Xiaomi has significantly increased in popularity, seeing a 65% increase in its revenue this year.

Despite these drawbacks and flaws, their focus on having a more value based company has led them to still be trusted in their core markets of India and Europe.