Realme Collects Users Data Without Consent? Government To Look Into Matter

Realme has come under the government’s scanner for its "Enhanced Intelligent Services" feature. Users have alleged that the Chinese phone manufacturer collects their personal information without consent. A person posted a screenshot of the Realme feature and claimed that it is enabled by default in all models. Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has responded that the government will "have it tested and checked". After this, the feature has become a concern for a large number of smartphone users in India. Realme has been accused of keeping Indian users in the dark about data collection and potential sharing of information by enabling this function without clear notification or user's approval.

How The Controversy Started

The controversy began when a Twitter user, Rishi Bagree, discovered a setting for "Enhanced Intelligent Services" on the Realme phone he was allegedly using and reported it.  “Realme's smartphone has a feature (Enhanced Intelligent Services) that captures the user's data (call logs, SMS, and location info) and it is "On" by default,” Rishi Bagree tweeted. “You can find this feature through—Settings -> Additional Settings -> System Services -> Enhanced Intelligent Services,” he claimed. The Enhanced Intelligent Services collects the user’s personal information such as location info, SMS, calendar events and call logs.

Bagree also alleged that smartphone users in India are not informed when their data is shared without their permission. Since the feature is activated by default, this is essentially compelled consent.

 “Is this data being sent to China ?” the user asked while posting a screenshot of the feature description page..

Realme's smartphone has a feature (Enhanced Intelligent Services) that captures the user's data (call logs, SMS, and location info) and it is "On" by default.
You can only see this "on" by default feature when you go to Settings -> Additional Settings -> System Services ->_ pic.twitter.com/QS3f6wMF3R — Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) June 16, 2023

The tweet caught the eye of Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the minister of state for information technology and electronics. He responded and said that the government will have the allegations checked.

Will hv this tested and checked @rishibagree

copy: @GoI_MeitY https://t.co/4hkA5YWsIg — Rajeev Chandrasekhar __ (@Rajeev_GoI) June 16, 2023

What Realme Has Said

In an official statement, the company denied all rumours of data sharing without the user’s consent. “All data processed in this service is encrypted and stored in encrypted hardware within user’s device strictly in compliance with Android security mechanisms. This data is completely stored within the device and is not shared anywhere else or uploaded on the cloud. We place great emphasis on user privacy protection, the enhanced intelligent services feature can be manually turned on or off basis the needs of the consumers,” the company said.