[NewsPoster]

Taiwan's National Communications Commission has issued a report clearing a variety of companies of breaking local data privacy laws, according to Reuters. The organization says that all 12 of the previously-implicated cellphone brands -- including Apple, Huawei, Samsung, LG, Sony, ZTE, and Xiaomi -- are in the clear, despite Xiaomi being the impetus for the investigation. In August, Xiaomi apologized and promised to make changes after a Finnish security firm discovered Xiaomi software was collecting address book data without permission.

The Taiwanese government began testing Xiaomi phones in September. Only later was the investigation expanded to a wider variety of devices.

The issue may be of particular interest to the Taiwanese government, since companies like Xiaomi have their servers in mainland China. The Chinese government could conceivably access address data there, and use it against supporters of Taiwanese independence or other ideologies it's opposed to. Regardless, the NCC is asking cellphone makers to improve the security of data transmission generally.

[coffeetime]

The background data retrievals from Xiaomi phones is hardwired to the phone's firmware. Even if the phone is turn off, it will try to connect to China's cloud server and copy your address book data plus email forwarding to their server. Xiaomi is beyond just a copycat. It's Dr. Evil's world domination plan at work.

[elroth]

It sounds like Xiaomi has started copying Google as much as Apple.