Taiwanese government regulators have accused Apple and Xiaomi of violating the country's privacy laws due to some of their smartphones sending user's data to company servers.
The National Communications Commission (NCC) in Taiwan has been evaluating different smartphones for the past four months and has so far found 12 smartphones that have collected and sent data without users knowing about it, according to Modern Readers.
"Almost every one of them will register with their company's server," said Yu Hsiao-Cheng, vice president of the NCC.
The investigating follows local legislator Chiu Chih-Wei discussing security concerns with Xiaomi, whose Android phones have become popular in Asia, PCWorld reported. However, the company has been receiving criticism for its devices sending customer data back to its servers without users' permission. Xiaomi would apologize for the issue in August and improve the phone's software.
Despite the software changes, Chih-Wei said on Thursday local Xiaomi stores were still selling phones with risks of privacy being violated because "there are no restrictions, the government could end up using Xiaomi phones."
The group's findings were revealed during a legislative session on Thursday, only naming Apple and Xiaomi as the companies that went against Taiwan's privacy policies, PCWorld reported. The commission declined on Friday to reveal which other vendors it was monitoring.
The investigation is on-going, and an NCC official said on Friday that the commission will release the results once the investigation is done.
