Realme Removes Feature That Gathers User Information

Realme smartphones were under investigation by the Indian government due to a feature called Enhanced Intelligent Services that automatically gathers device information, including personal data like call logs, SMS, and location information. However, the Chinese brand has now launched a new update that will deactivate this feature on specific models.

The recently launched Realme 11 Pro and Realme 11 Pro+ smartphones are already receiving software updates that automatically disable the service without user intervention. We checked the new update of the Realme 11 Pro+ review unit that the brand gave us, it clearly mentions that it has changed the description of the service.

In the new description, the smartphone brand has removed the mention of app usage statistics, calendar events, and unread messages and missed calls statistics.

This comes after a user named Rishi Bagree shared a screenshot of the Enhanced Intelligent Services feature on Twitter, which caught the attention of Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

“Realme smartphone has a feature (Enhanced Intelligent Services) that captures user data (call logs, text messages and location data) and it is “On” by default. By default, you can see this “on” only when you go to Settings -> Advanced -> System Services -> Enhanced Intelligent Services,” the user wrote on Twitter.

“Indian users can’t share their data without their consent. This is basically forced consent because it’s on by default.

Will this information be sent to China?” he added.

In his reply, Minister of State for Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar assured that he would look into the matter. “Is this a tested and verified @rishibagree copy: @GoI_MeitY,” Chandrasekhar tweeted.

Later, Realme issued an official statement saying that all data processed in this service is encrypted and stored in encrypted hardware on the user’s device strictly in accordance with Android security mechanisms. This information is stored entirely on the device and is not shared anywhere else or uploaded to the cloud.

“We invest in protecting user privacy, the enhanced smart service feature can be manually turned on or off according to consumer needs. The company complies with local laws and regulations,” Realme India said in a statement.