Beware: Hi Tech Digital Espionage of Android Smartphone Owners Sending Data Back To Servers In China

By Lester Mondragon - 20 Nov '16 00:56AM

The espionage that mostly affects Android Smartphones that are Chinese made is happening in the United States and elsewhere where these devices are distributed.

These occurrences were earlier detected by Android's Kryptowire, a security firm that found out about the spying software. The software, called ADUPS is present in ZTE, Huawei and BLU phones. It has infected these cellphones commanding them to send data to Chinese servers owned by Shanghai Adups Technology Co., as reported by Consumer Reports.

Adups software was intentionally sending back data to China includes the owner's text messages, location, and logged calls. ZTE and Huawei issued statements, to shed some light and somehow wash their hands, stating that Adups is not an official contractor of their respective firms. Phones made by the US Company, Blu, was fast to issue a statement saying that the problem had been immediately addressed. They said that they called up Adups Technology and made a complaint about the issue. The reply was that Adups just simply turned the collection of data off. Since then, Blu did not detect any firmware operating in their R1 HD units.

In this light, Adups had issued an apology stating that collection of data was an error and that all received information had been erased, according to Android Headlines.

Smartphone owners could know if their devices are running this firmware. Only phones running on the Android software could be infected. This means that clients with iPhones need not worry about this issue. BLU confirmed that six models of their phones had been installed with this firmware. They are:

R1 HD
Energy X plus 2
Studio Touch
Advance 4.0 L2
Energy Diamond
Neo XL

It is a scary scenario for the owners of these infected units. There are lots of "what ifs" and uncertainties that may be running in the minds of users. Information that was collected might be in the government's data base now. Possibilities could happen if you might be rudely interrogated at a Chinese airport or any Chinese facility someday.

As reported in PHANDROID, There are about 700 million Chinese phones scattered all over the world and they may be spying on you. Beware.