After OnePlus drew widespread ire regarding its collection of data from devices running OxygenOS, co-founder Carl Pei has weighed in, promising to put an end to the practice by the end of this month.
OnePlus once again found itself in hot water earlier this week after an eagle-eyed developer, Chris Moore, discovered that his OnePlus smartphone was uploading a raft of informatio n back to the company. The data harvested from devices running OxygenOS included the IMEI and serial numbers, MAC addresses, and user behaviors such as when apps are opened or when the handset is unlocked. The practice has attracted widespread criticism but now the firm has responded to the situation.
While users could disable some data from being collected, specifically with regards to usage activity, it was impossible to stop all data collection processes via the user interface on the smartphone.
Now, in a post on its forum, OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei himself addressed some of the key concerns raised with respect to a lack of opt-in for data collection:
Pei also took the opportunity to stress that while the company collected some device-specific information in order to help provide better after-sales support, none of the information had been shared with external parties and had only been used in aggregate analytics.
Of course, it remains to be seen as to whether or not OnePlus actually delivers upon its promise within its advised timeframes, but the response may or may not put at ease customers who have been second-guessing their choice of smartphones in recent days.
Source: OnePlus via Lowyat. NET
