Xiaomi under Taiwanese investigation over cyber-security

24 Sep 2014

Chinese mobile manufacturer Xiaomi is under investigation by the Taiwanese government over suspicions that the phones are transmitting user data back to the Chinese government.

The two governments traditionally don’t see eye-to-eye since the island of Taiwan broke away from the Communist government on the mainland, but this latest incident shows that Taiwan are wary Xiaomi could prove a cyber-security threat to the country.

According to Reuters, a number of the Xiaomi’s phones already send users’ data to its servers located in Beijing which the Taiwanese government in a statement feels is worthy of an investigation which, if considered a threat, could see their line of phones removed from shelves.

This is yet another incident involving the Chinese manufacturer after a Finnish security firm found last August that users’ contacts and address books were also being harvested online without their permission.

The company quickly issued an apology and assured users that this particular cyber-security issue had been addressed.

The announcement was made by Gin-Shian Lou, a director at Taiwan’s National Communications Commission, who is part of a government becoming increasingly concerned with its Asian neighbours influence online.

The government also announced that it was to ban the use of the Japanese-run, but South Korean-owned, messaging app Line on government computers, also of what they consider to be potential security threats.

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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