According to today's news, the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) issued a notice to Xiaomi, confirming that there is no evidence that There is a "censorship" function in Xiaomi mobile phones.
Last September, a Lithuanian "product survey report" claimed that Xiaomi's flagship phones sold in Europe had built-in detection and censorship capabilities capable of detecting sensitive words. It was also emphasized that the feature was turned off in the EU, but could be enabled remotely, and that sending the relevant data in encrypted form to a server in Singapore could violate data usage regulations in Europe.
It is reported that the report analyzes three smartphone models. They are Huawei P40 5G, Xiaomi Mi 10T 5G and OnePlus 8T 5G.
Lithuanian Cyber Security Center NKSC made the most serious allegations against Xiaomi phones, saying that 3 so-called "potential risks" were found on Xiaomi phones.
At the same time, Lithuania's deputy defense minister urged the country's people not to buy new Chinese mobile phones and to dispose of the mobile phones they had already purchased as soon as possible. Lithuania also shared the report with other EU countries and U.S. officials.
In response to Lithuania's allegations, Xiaomi countered that it has never, and will never restrict or block any personal behavior of users, such as searching, calling, browsing the web or using third-party communication software.
In a further explanation, Xiaomi said that the report is actually the operation of the ad management software, which will manage the paid ads pushed to the mobile phone by Xiaomi's own apps (such as Xiaomi videos, Xiaomi Streamer, etc.) with limited capabilities to avoid users being affected by unpleasant content.
Xiaomi also stressed that it "will not review users' communication information" and "fully respect and protect the legal rights of all users", and added that Xiaomi mobile phones comply with the Eu General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), not only obtaining the consent of users in advance for all data access, but also complying with the local regulations of the European Union and its member states.
After the lithuanian report, the Germans, who had always been known for their "rigor", moved. Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) conducted a three-and-a-half-month follow-up investigation into Xiaomi's phones.
After months of technical inspections, BSI Germany has now concluded that nothing unusual has been found and that no further investigation or other measures are required. In response to the aforementioned report, the notice specifically states: "BSI was unable to detect the transmission behavior of the filtered list mentioned in the original report. ”
In this regard, a Xiaomi spokesperson said that he was pleased that BSI confirmed that Xiaomi complied with the data privacy and security laws of the European Union and various countries. "Xiaomi has always attached great importance to the privacy and security of its customers, and is committed to operating its business in a transparent and responsible manner, and will welcome users, regulators and other stakeholders to communicate with Xiaomi in the future." ”
In the end, the farce in Lithuania ended with the German BSI saying that there was no evidence that Xiaomi mobile phones had a "censorship" function, and a storm finally subsided. Netizens joked that it was recommended that Xiaomi mobile phones withdraw from the Lithuanian market and let them be "inorganicly available".
Behind this joke, in fact, it also proves that Xiaomi mobile phones are hot in the Lithuanian market.
Not only the Lithuanian market, but also xiaomi mobile phones currently occupy a leading position in the entire European market.
According to a report released by market research agency Canalys, in the first quarter of 2021, the European smartphone market share, Xiaomi surpassed Apple for the first time to reach the second, Western European smartphone shipments grew rapidly, and the market share ranked third.
In the second quarter, Xiaomi went further, according to the data of market research agencies, Xiaomi shipped 12.7 million mobile phones in the second quarter, with a market share of 25.3%, surpassing Samsung to rank first in Europe for the first time, and shipments increased by 67.1% year-on-year.
Data on European smartphone shipments for the second quarter of 2021
According to Canalys, Xiaomi ranked second in the European smartphone market in the third quarter of 2021 and is the Chinese mobile phone company with the highest sales volume in Europe. Among them, in Lithuania, Belarus, Poland and other countries, xiaomi shipments ranked first.
Previously, Lei Jun, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, had publicly stated that Xiaomi Group should "die" to the Chinese market and unswervingly take the road of globalization, and Xiaomi aims to rank first in the European market share in the next few years.
Thanks to the rapid development of overseas markets, Xiaomi can quickly become the world's third largest mobile phone brand.
It may also be a "big trick", and it is not the first time that Xiaomi has encountered an incident similar to the Lithuanian accusation.
As early as the beginning of 2021, Xiaomi was identified by the United States as a "Chinese military company". After some game, the recognition was finally lifted on May 25, 2021.
For such incidents, the attitude given by Xiaomi has always been - pay attention to privacy and security, and welcome supervision. It can be said that "the body is not afraid of the shadow oblique".
And everyone can't help but worry, who will be the next domestic mobile phone brand that will be targeted?