User outcry prompts OnePlus to step down excessive data collection

Earlier this week, it was revealed that independent phone maker OnePlus was collecting all manner of information from phones running its OxygenOS — without telling users, of course.

Caught red-handed, the company is backing off from the opt-out data collection program, giving users a choice up front instead of buried in the options.

The offending telemetry was discovered earlier this week, when software engineer Christopher Moore happened to snoop on his phone’s traffic for a hacking challenge.

He noticed that the device was phoning home to OnePlus when it crashed — which is expected and benign — but also every time the phone was woken up or put to sleep — which is odd and intrusive.

Looking closer, he found that the device was also repeatedly sending its IMEI, phone number, serial number, wi-fi network and MAC address, and numerous other metrics.

Having the option to send this information with, say, a bug report would be understandable, but it was sending this information every time an app was launched.

UCJ, UNILORIN.