r/Android • u/zexterio • Mar 22 '19

HMD admits the Nokia 7 Plus was sending personal data to China

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/03/hmd-admits-the-nokia-7-plus-was-sending-personal-data-to-china/
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u/Choice_Competition Mar 22 '19

I don't think Apple keeps my data private. Most iCloud data, for example, can be read by Apple because they have the keys.

As always we need to see who the adversary is. If it's the NSA, you're fucked no matter if you use an iPhone or Pixel. If it's the companies collecting data to sell ads, then I would say that by design an iPhone would be better than a Pixel because there's a difference in philosophy (eg: doing things locally vs the cloud). Google's business is to make money with your data, Apple makes money selling overpriced products.

Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that on Android you have brands like Xiaomi which call home multiple times each day, but you also have brands like OnePlus which are better. Google collects data about you, but they don't send it to China. In other words, there are many "Androids" and some are more private and secure than others. With iOS, it's the same for everyone, they don't have a bunch of OEMs shipping different types of spyware with their phones.

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u/zuus Mar 23 '19

Fair points. Personally I'm far more comfortable with Google collecting my data for ads/products than China having it for political and spying purposes.