Security issues in HTC's smartphones have compromised millions of customers' personal information, such as financial account numbers and related access codes or medical information such as text messages received from healthcare providers, according to a FTC News Release.
Due to the security vulnerabilities found in millions of HTC smartphones and tablet computers, the Federal Trade Commission charged HTC, a Taiwanese company that is one of the largest sellers of smartphones in the United States, and ordered it to issue a fix for the problems and ensure security in the future.
HTC America further agreed to conduct security inspections once in every two years for the next 20 years.
The FTC said the charges against HTC were based on the fact that the Taiwanese company "failed to take reasonable steps to secure the software it developed for its smartphones and tablet computers, introducing security flaws that placed sensitive information about millions of consumers at risk."
"The company didn't design its products with security in mind," Lesley Fair, a senior lawyer in the commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection, wrote in a blog post. "HTC didn't test the software on its mobile devices for potential security vulnerabilities, didn't follow commonly accepted secure coding practices and didn't even respond when warned about the flaws in its devices."
The company is working towards developing and releasing the fix for all the devices that are compromised.
"Working with our carrier partners, we have addressed the identified security vulnerabilities on the majority of devices in the U.S. released after December 2010," Sally Julien, an HTC spokeswoman, said in a statement. "We're working to roll out the remaining software updates now and recommend customers download them once available."
"Privacy and security are important," the statement added, "and we are committed to improving practices that help safeguard our customers' devices and data."
Due to the security issues in its devices, the Taiwanese company has faced a major loss in the share market since the third quarter of 2011. HTC dropped almost 14 percent of the world's smartphone market since 2011.
