Xiaomi : Lithuania tells citizens to get rid of Chinese phones 'as fast as possible'
September 22, 2021 at 02:41 pm EDT
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Lithuania’s Defence Ministry has urged people to throw away their Chinese phones due to security and censorship concerns.
The Defence Deputy Minister, Margiris Abukevicius, said, “Our recommendation is to not buy new Chinese phones, and to get rid of those already purchased as fast as reasonably possible.”
A report published by Lithuania’s National Cyber Security Centre found that phones by Chinese manufacturers such as the Xiaomi Mi 1OT 5G had built in censorship-tools.
The Xiaomi phone was found to censor terms such as “democracy movement”, “Free Tibet”, and “Long live Taiwan independence”, along with 447 other terms on a list that is continually being updated.
While this feature is turned off in the European Union region, the report warned that it can be turned on remotely at any time.
According to the report, the model also sends encrypted phone usage data to a server in Singapore.
“This is important not only to Lithuania but to all countries which use Xiaomi equipment,” the report said.
The centre also raised concerns with 5G models by Huawei, which it declared put consumers at risk of security breaches.
Xiaomi and Huawei have both denied the report’s claims. A spokeswoman from Xiaomi said the firm is fully GDPR compliant.
The post Lithuania tells citizens to get rid of Chinese phones 'as fast as possible' appeared first on CityAM.
Xiaomi Corporation is specialized in the design, production and marketing of smartphones and connected products. Revenue by type of activity breaks down as follows:
- sales of smartphones and laptops (61.9%): 146.4 million units sold in 2020;
- sales of connected objects, electronic products and smart devices (27.4%): smart televisions, video projectors, smart routers, connected lighting systems, smart electric scooters, games monitors, headsets, multimedia boxes, multimedia feed readers, connected bracelets and watches, air purifiers, vacuum cleaners, etc.;
- provision of Internet services (9.7%): including advertising services, publishing of content, etc.;
- other (1%).
China accounts for 50.2% of net sales.