Government Investigating Alleged Data Collection by Realme Users? Rajeev Chandrasekhar Suggests So

An Indian Twitter user has raised concerns about Indian user data being sent to China through realme smartphones. Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has responded to the tweet, stating that the government will investigate the matter. The issue was brought to light by another Twitter user, Rishi Bagree, who pointed out that the Enhanced Intelligent Services feature on realme smartphones captures call logs, SMS, and location information by default.

He added: “You can only see this ‘on’ by default when you go to Settings -> Advanced -> System Services -> Enhanced Intelligent Services.

Pointing out that the Indian user’s consent was not taken before the feature was implemented, Bagree said, “Indian users are being kept in the dark to share their data without their consent.”

He concluded by saying, “This is basically forced consent because it’s on by default. Will this information be sent to China?”

Check out the realme description of the Enhanced Intelligent Services feature:

“Enhanced Intelligent Services” is a service that improves your device functionality and user experience based on how you use your device, mainly by optimizing downloads and providing personalization features such as wallpapers.

In order to provide the download optimization feature, the “Enhanced Intelligent Services” service must collect your location information and application usage statistics and obtain location permission. In order to provide wallpapers and other personalization features, the “Enhanced Intelligent Services” service must collect statistics about your unread messages and missed calls, calendar events and device usage statistics, and obtain the following permissions: connect to the Internet and read your calendar events, call logs. and text messages.

You can manage permissions by going to “Settings – Applications – Application management (Show system applications) – Smart services – Permissions”. Enable or disable “Enhanced Intelligent Services” by going to “Settings – Advanced Settings – System Services – Enhanced Intelligent Services”. When “Enhanced Intelligent Services” is disabled, applications and functions that require this service will not be available. For more information, see Privacy.

Following this finding, Minister of State for Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar announced that the government would look into the matter.

Chandrasekhar made this statement in response to a retweet of the original tweet, which included a screenshot and allegations against the Chinese smartphone brand.