OnePlus has been pulled into the news lately for alleged claims of tracking user data. The popular smartphone manufacturer has been found to track crucial identity information such as IMEI number, MAC addresses, mobile network names, WiFi SSIDs and serial number.
Chris D Moore, who uses a OnePlus 2, installed a security tool to track the inflow and outflow of data from hid device. He found that his OnePlus 2 was constantly reaching out to open.oneplus.net, which in turn diverted traffic to an Amazon server in the US. Not only that, upon further inspection, Chris found that OnePlus was even tracking the number of times he was unlocking or locking his phone. Fearing that, he immediately posted the issue on Twitter with screenshots. And OnePlus immediately replied with an official statement to justify what Chris had discovered.
OnePlus stated the following — “"We securely transmit analytics in two different streams over HTTPS to an Amazon server. The first stream (first case of data transmission) is usage analytics, which we collect in order for us to more precisely fine-tune our software according to user behaviour. This transmission of user activity can be turned off by navigating to 'Settings' -> 'Advanced' -> 'Join user experience program'. The second stream (tracking of locking and unlocking) is device information, which we collect to provide better after-sales support."
With this statement, it becomes clear this is an issue existing on all OnePlus devices, including the latest OnePlus 5. While half of it can be solved by opting out of the user experience program, the other one will be constantly working in the background. Now, this is weird as how can company record all user operation data to help in providing after-sales service to users, unless they go through all the data if the user visits the OnePlus service centre.
Anyways, if you have been planning to get a OnePlus device, then it is better to stay away from their devices if you are extremely concerned about their privacy.
