Moreover, in some cases the data was also channeled to China’s search giant Baidu. The twist is that the data was sent to these mobile network operators even if there was no SIM card in the phone, or if there was a SIM card from a different MNO, such as one based in the UK. The researchers said that the smartphones were still sending “a worrying amount of personally identifiable information (PII)” not only to the device manufacturer, but also to mobile providers, including China Mobile and China Unicom. Not every user will go to such great pains to protect their privacy, but, turns out, even these precautions might fail. In their interactions with the phones, the researchers acted as if they were “a privacy-aware but busy user,” who had opted out of analytics and personalization, did not use any cloud storage or any other optional third-party services, and had not created an account on any platform managed by the OS developer. In a paper called “Android OS Privacy Under the Loupe - A Tale from the East,” the researchers studied three popular Chinese smartphones: Xiaomi Redmi Note 11, OPPO Realme Q3 Pro, and a OnePlus 9R. Researchers from University of Edinburgh and Trinity College Dublin have found that preinstalled apps on China’s three most popular Android phones are leaking users’ privacy-sensitive data, such as GPS coordinates, phone number, app usage, call history - all that without consent or, as in some cases, even without as little as notice. And because they’re system apps, they’re more likely to do so without your permission than apps that you download yourself. After all, how bad can a messaging app be? But the problem is that built-in apps not only come to your phone uninvited, they also collect and transmit sensitive personal information back to the vendor or whoever the vendor deems fit.

It can be argued that having a manufacturer decide which apps you should have is no fun, but it is not a disaster either, and even convenient to some extent. Besides, uninstalling system apps such as the built-in clock, phone or dialer apps can be risky, as it can turn your new phone into a brick. On others, they can only be disabled so that they do not run in the background. On some smartphones, these apps can be uninstalled, although you may have to bend over backwards to do this. However, most of them you don’t need at all, but you play the hand you’ve been dealt. Some of these pre-installed apps that clutter the screen and eat up your precious storage space at least may be useful. When you turn on your new smartphone for the first time, it is already jam-packed with apps that come bundled with it.

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