In an increasingly common discovery, yet another company has been found to be collecting user data without permission. OnePlus, a mobile phone company, has been collecting data from its Android-esque operating system, OxygenOS.
The data that OnePlus has been collecting is the same as any other company could collect: how often you use your phone, which apps are most popular to you, and the WiFi networks you connect to. The troublesome thing is that this data isn’t anonymous. Rather than pooling all the data collected from users, OxygenOS assigns its phones serial numbers to identify the data it pulls from each device, meaning each user’s data is directly traceable back to the individual source.
Unsurprisingly, this data collecting is opt-out rather than opt-in, and equally unsurprisingly, customers aren’t told about the collection when buying the device. On the bright side, OnePlus isn’t selling this data. So far, it seems to be used exclusively for identifying problems and improving patch time.
If you happen to have a OnePlus device, here is a guide to show you how to go in to the settings and disable the data collection.
Sources: Tom’s Guide, Beta News, Engadget
Image: Wikimedia Commons
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