info@businessghana.com
Security firm Kryptowire has discovered that some low-cost smartphones have a backdoor that sends personal data to China every 72 hours. The preinstalled software, which monitors data such as location, call contacts and text messages, was made the Chinese company Shanghai Adups Technology Company. The phone manufacturer Blu said that 120,000 of its phones had been affected and that it had updated the software to eliminate the feature, the New York Times reports.
Kryptowire said the Adups software transmitted the full contents of text messages, contact lists, call logs, location information and other data to a Chinese server. The surveillance is not disclosed to users. Adups designed the software to help a Chinese phone manufacturer monitor user behavior and provide customer support, according to a document that Adups provided to explain the problem to Blu executives.
That version of the software was not intended for American phones, the company said. Lily Lim, a lawyer in California who represents Adups, said this was a "mistake", and noted that the company was not affiliated with the Chinese government. She added that phone companies, not Adups, were responsible for disclosing privacy policies to users.
Adups also lists ZTE and Huawei among its customers on its website; it is not known whether their phones also include the same firmware. A Google official said the company had told Adups to remove the surveillance ability from phones that run services like the Google Play store.
Kryptowire said it took its findings to the US Department of Homeland Security, and the latter said it was looking at "appropriate mitigation strategies". Ohev-Zion, CEO of Blu, said he was confident that the problem had been resolved for his customers.
