Poohcom
Lithuania's National Cyber Security Centre has reported security flaws and built-in censorship tools, in 5G mobiles from Chinese manufacturers. As a consequence, the country's Defence Ministry has recommended that its citizens not purchase new Chinese smartphones, and replace their current ones as soon as feasible.
Xiaomi's flagship Mi 10T 5G phone was found to have software that could detect and censor terms including "Free Tibet", "Long live Taiwan independence" or "democracy movement", the report said. It highlighted more than 449 terms that could be censored by the Xiaomi phone's system apps, including the default internet browser. In Europe, this capability had been switched off on these models, but the report argued it could be remotely activated at any time.
Speaking to the BBC, a Xiaomi spokeswoman denied that its devices censor communications. Furthermore, she claimed that the company does not block or restrict its smartphones' users, and is fully GDPR compliant. But—channelling Mandy Rice-Davies here—a subservant to the Chinese government would, wouldn't they?
While I'm no expert on the GDPR, I'd be surprised if it allows the transfer of encrypted phone usage data to servers in Singapore though. (thinking)