U.S. Representatives John Moolenaar (R, MI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D, IL) have convinced the U.S. Commerce Department to look into phone maker OnePlus after alleging the devices are collecting user information “without explicit user consent.”
It’s alleged that a commercial analysis indicates potential unwanted data collection by OnePlus devices, which is then sent to China-owned servers.
I’ve not read the analysis. I currently don’t have a OnePlus phone. And while I can’t prove all the things that OnePlus is alleged to be doing, I can still tell you that this is probably true. Then again, it’s also true that the phone I am using (a Motorola Razr or a Pixel 9 Pro XL) is doing the exact same thing, collecting the same types of “sensitive personal information,” and shipping it off to be stored on a server somewhere. Your phone is doing the same thing.
They all do it, and we did agree to it in those terms we never read.
Fear or posturing?
Normally, I try to stay out of politics and the constant fighting that goes along with it. It never works, and people think that one side is “their guy” and the other side isn’t. To me, it’s class warfare of the wealthy versus the rest of us.
China has been the hot button for a while. The last U.S. administration didn’t like it any better than the current one. China is legitimately becoming an economic powerhouse that threatens the United States, and nobody who might get blamed for it likes it very much.
We’ve seen Chinese companies blacklisted and banned, we’ve seen threats of the same for others. These companies aren’t doing anything different than the companies that aren’t on the chopping block; they just contribute to the Chinese economy in ways that Google or Apple do not.
In this case, OnePlus is collecting the same type of data that any other phone is collecting and likely sending it off to servers in France or Iowa or somewhere. These servers are likely administered by people who work for or with OnePlus, a Shenzhen-based phone maker.
Someone in China likely has access to that data regardless of where the server lives. And yes, we checked and have seen no indication that the data goes directly to China.
We also reached out to OnePlus about the allegations, but we have yet to hear back at the time of publication.
OnePlus isn’t likely to do anything out of the ordinary with this data. That doesn’t mean the ordinary is good — big tech companies collect far too much personal information whenever we allow them to do it.
The user data also isn’t going directly to some sort of secret communist Chinese spy agency. It’s just being collected so OnePlus can try to sell you more stuff or build a better AI-powered piece of software. Again, just like Amazon or Meta does.
The current administration likes to say they are tough on China. They don’t mean the people of China; they mean the government and the companies it uses to bolster the Chinese presence on the world stage.
If OnePlus were based in Oklahoma or even Saskatchewan, nobody would bat an eye about it collecting the same amount and types of data that everyone else does. The one thing the government needs to do is protect us, and giving a free pass to a company that isn’t contributing to the new bad guy on the block isn’t doing it. If it’s bad when OnePlus is doing it, it’s also bad when Samsung does it.
But I digress. In a few years, we get to elect another set of politicians who will do the same thing.
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