Xiaomi accused of espionage

The Western world regularly suspects Chinese companies of espionage for their government. Now, Xiaomi and Tencent have been accused of illegally collecting data, not somewhere, but in their homeland.

The Chinese government placed Xiaomi and Tencent on the list of the largest companies in the country illegally collecting user personal data. The Ministry of Industry, Information and Technology (MIIT) has compiled a list of 41 applications that violate national laws regarding the collection and resale of personal data. These applications request too many permissions, and in some cases make the unsubscribe process quite problematic.

The list of applications includes Xiaomi Finance, Tencent QQ (instant messaging service), QQ Reading (a platform designed for e-books), Sina Corp, popular news aggregators in China (36Kr and Sohu News) and FlashEX delivery service.

Sources confirm that Chinese regulators are redoubling their efforts to combat applications that do not respect the very concept of privacy. Last month, Chinese authorities launched a campaign to blacklist and block such mobile applications.