TAIPEI: The Taiwanese government is investigating whether Xiaomi Inc, China’s leading smartphone company by domestic shipments, is a cyber security threat and will make a decision within three months.
The government began performing independent tests on Xiaomi phones after reports in recent months that some models automatically send user data back to the firm’s servers in mainland China, Gin-Shian Lou, a director at Taiwan’s National Communications Commission, said yesterday.
The probe is a reminder of the scrutiny Chinese technology firms are subject to abroad as governments become increasingly wary of potential cyber security threats from the world’s second-biggest economy. China’s government and companies are frequently accused of cyber and industrial espionage.
The investigation also throws the spotlight on cross-strait politics. China and Taiwan have been historical foes since defeated Nationalists fled to the island after losing a civil war to China’s Communists in 1949. The government in Beijing still regards Taiwan as a renegade province.
Privately owned Xiaomi has faced several allegations of security leaks in recent months. In August, the company publicly apologised and said it would change a default cloud feature after a Finnish security company found proof that Xiaomi collected address book data without permission.
“We wanted to ensure the situation was as they said, so we decided to perform our own tests,” Lou told reporters in Taipei, referring to Xiaomi’s assurances.
The test results should be made public soon, Lou said. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the investigation could lead to any ban for Xiaomi’s low-priced smartphones in Taiwan.
Xiaomi declined to comment.
The Chinese smartphone maker has also been accused in the Hong Kong media of sending copies of user text-messages back to servers on the mainland, a claim that the company has vigorously called false and libellous.
Under the law in mainland China, firms storing data on China’s soil are to comply with any data requests from the government. Data stored by Taiwanese users on the mainland could be vulnerable to such requests. Some companies, notably Google Inc, have opted not to situate servers in China. Reuters
