Don't Be Naive, Oneplus Isn't Sending Your Data To Chinese Servers

Almost every week we hear stories of OnePlus this, OnePlus that, the company haven't had a breath of air without someone gibing at them.

OnePlus has had some issus in the past and even the recent credit card hack that affected about 40,000 customers hasn't made the company's image any better. Now a Twitter user made a post in which he claims OnePlus is identifying and uploading clipboard data such as bank account number, phone IMEI, user phone number, private messages, and other details to a Chinese server ... this post made users on Twitter go nuts.

The @OnePlus #clipboard app contains a strange file called badword.txt 🤔

In these words, we can find: Chairman, Vice President, Deputy Director, Associate Professor, Deputy Heads, General, Private Message, shipping, Address, email, ...https://t.co/ePQvD1citn pic.twitter.com/3dCh0joVkH

— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) January 25, 2018

The post says there exist a file called badwords.txt which is specifically meant to identify certain type of data and forward them to a server in China. However, OnePlus has come out to debunk those claims as they explained that the file in question was meant to filter out data not to upload.

According to an official statement by OnePlus, no data user data was being sent to any hidden server without users consent.

"There has been a false claim that the clipboard app has been sending user data to a server. The code is entirely inactive in the open beta for OxygenOS, our global operating. No user data is being sent to any server without the consent in OxygenOS," Part of the statement read.

OnePlus explained that badwords.txt is a blacklist file that tells the OS not to monitor matching data for its smart clipboard service.

"In the open beta for HydrogenOS, our operating system for the China market, the identified folder exists in order to filter out what data to not upload. Local data in this folder is skipped over and not sent to server," OnePlus said.

That feature according to OnePlus is used in China as part of HydrogenOS and not in the US or any other part of the world. The aim for its development was meant to get around blocking of competitor links in Chinese messaging services like WeChat, and the code isn't active in OxygenOS.

 The mistake OnePlus made here was to include those codes from HydrogenOS in to the OxygenOS beta. Though the code is inactive, its very natural for users to get confuse. But do not let other feelings get in the way. And its still a good thing to keep an eye open to phone makers.