Worried your phone company may be stealing data like SMS and call logs? Here’s how to stop them
Realme, OnePlus, and Oppo have been accused of gathering certain personal data to enhance user experience and optimise their phones. While this may be a cause for concern, there's no need to be alarmed. Users can easily deactivate it
Realme, OnePlus, and Oppo have been accused of gathering certain personal data to enhance user experience and optimise their phones. While this may be a cause for concern, there's no need to be alarmed. Users can easily deactivate it. Image Credit: Tech2 | Mehul Reuben Das
Certain smartphone companies such as Realme, OnePlus, and Oppo have been accused of gathering certain personal data to enhance user experience and optimize their phones. While this may be a cause for concern, there’s no need to be alarmed because you can easily deactivate this feature.
These companies have a setting called “Enhanced intelligent service” enabled by default on their phones, but privacy-conscious users can turn it off in the phone’s settings.
Major smartphone companies accused of collecting user data
The issue of data collection gained attention when a Twitter user shared a screenshot of this feature, claiming that it accessed SMS, calls, and other data to enhance the smartphone experience. Realme, as one of the companies involved, responded to the concern after it caught the attention of India’s IT minister. The company clarified that the data is stored solely within the device and is neither shared nor uploaded to the cloud.
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Realme stated, “The enhanced intelligent services feature is intended to optimize device usage for better battery life and temperature performance. However, contrary to the current description, we do not access any data related to SMS, phone calls, schedules, etc. All data processed in this service is encrypted and stored in encrypted hardware within the user’s device, strictly following Android security protocols.”
“This data remains entirely within the device and is not shared or uploaded elsewhere. User privacy protection is of utmost importance to us, and the enhanced intelligent services feature can be manually enabled or disabled based on user preferences,” the company added.
How to disable your smartphone from collecting data for smartphone companies
- First go to your phone’s settings.
- Click on Additional Settings and then System Services.
- Tap to disable Enhanced System Services.
- Restart your device, and you’re good to go.
Pay attention
When setting up a new Android phone, you encounter various options, including one that asks for permission to collect phone information and other data to improve performance or the user interface. If you’re uncomfortable sharing personal data, you can simply disable options like “Send usage and diagnostic data” for Google services.
Google states that this is done to enhance user experience, but many individuals prefer to have the choice to disable it. Similarly, smartphone manufacturers offer options to enhance overall performance and battery life.
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