OnePlus to make data collection 'opt-in' after user outcry

In the wake of the recent outcry over its snooping data collection practices, Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus has vowed to make it an opt-in user experience program. Also, the company 'will no longer be collecting telephone numbers, MAC Addresses and WiFi information.'

Last week, security researcher, Christopher Moore published a blog revealing that OnePlus has been gathering his personal information and transmitting it to company's server without his permission. According to Moore’s analysis, captured information included his phone’s IMEI and serial number, phone numbers, MAC addresses, mobile network names and IMSI prefixes, and wireless network data.

Not just this, OnePlus was apparently also collecting data on when its users were opening applications and what they were doing in those apps, including Outlook and Slack. OnePlus said at the time that the data was to “fine tune our software according to user behavior” and “provide better after-sales support.”

But after user outcry over privacy concerns, OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei himself addressed the issue: "By the end of October, all OnePlus phones running OxygenOS will have a prompt in the setup wizard that asks users if they want to join our user experience program. The setup wizard will clearly indicate that the program collects usage analytics. In addition, we will include a terms of service agreement that further explains our analytics collection. We would also like to share we will no longer be collecting telephone numbers, MAC Addresses and WiFi information."

He also assured that none of the information had been shared with external parties and had only been used in aggregate analytics.