OnePlus alters data collection policy after public outcry

Early last week, software engineer Christopher Moore discovered that OnePlus devices were collecting a variety of user data, including highly personal information like IMEI numbers, MAC addresses, IMSI prefixes and phone numbers, without disclosing the fact to their owners.

In the aftermath, the company quickly issued a statement:

“We securely transmit analytics in two different streams over HTTPS to an Amazon server. The first stream is usage analytics, which we collect in order for us to more precisely fine tune our software according to user behavior. This transmission of usage activity can be turned off by navigating to ‘Settings’ -> ‘Advanced’ -> ‘Join user experience program’. The second stream is device information, which we collect to provide better after-sales support.”

On Friday, October 13th, 2017, OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei took to the company’s community forums to expand on the situation. In addition to repeating the company’s previous statement, Pei said OnePlus will update all of its OxygenOS devices to include a new prompt in the setup wizard that asks new users if they want to join the user experience program.

The company will also issue a new terms of service agreement that further explains the company’s data collection policies. Lastly, Pei said OnePlus will no longer collect telephone numbers, MAC addresses and Wi-Fi information.

Understandably, some OnePlus users were upset to see Pei not provide additional context into why the company was collecting information like phone numbers in the first place.

MobileSyrup has reached out to OnePlus to confirm whether “all phones running OxygenOS” includes the OnePlus 2, and this story will be updated with a response.

[source]OnePlus[/source]