Realme Phones Stealing Your Data? Government Promises Probe After Social Media Storm

Almost all smartphones and mobile apps have access to your personal information like contacts, messages et cetera. However, the user is generally given a choice of whether he/she wishes to share that data or not.

New Delhi: Chinese mobile applications have several times come under scrutiny over unauthorised capture of personal data. All smartphones and most of the applications have some sort of data collection mechanism involved. Usually, the explanation given is that permission to collect such data is required to offer better services and experiences.

However, Realme seems to be doing this by default. Those people who use Realme phones have no way of knowing they’re being tracked unless they head over to a particular setting and turn it off manually.

This issue has been flagged by Twitter user @rishibagree. As per Bagree, Realme smartphones come with a feature called Enhanced Intelligent Services which, he claims, captures users personal data like call logs, SMS and location info.

Bagree has shared a screenshot showing that the feature is ‘on’ by default on Realme phones. You can check it yourself by going to Settings>Additional settings>System services.

Almost all smartphones and mobile apps have access to your personal information like contacts, messages et cetera. However, the user is generally given a choice of whether he/she wishes to share that data or not. The issue becomes a matter of concern if the user is unaware of his/her data being traced without his/her knowledge.

“Realme’s smartphone has a feature (Enhanced Intelligent Services) that captures the user’s data (call logs, SMS, and location info) and it is “On” by default. You can only see this “on” by default feature when you go to Settings -> Additional Settings -> System Services -> Enhanced Intelligent Services. Indian users are kept in dark to share their data without their consent. This is basically forced consent, since it’s on by default. Is this data being sent to China?,” the user writes in the tweet.

In the next turn of events, the tweet caught the eye of IT Minister, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who says that he will investigate the matter. “Will hv this tested and checked,” the monster replied to Bagree’s tweet.

Smartphone brand Realme is yet to react to the accusations. But other smartphone users have also reacted to the tweet, spotting the same feature enabled on their phones. “This is by default enabled with One plus phone too,” said one user. “On Oppo Reno too. Found and switched off,” wrote another .