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#Post#: 99096--------------------------------------------------
Xiaomi is the Official Technology Activation Partner, but what
is Technology Activation?
DIR By: Nico Wilson
Date: November 14, 2022, 8:16 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Xiaomi has been appointed Official Technology Activation Partner
for Thursday's Baa Baas game at the Stoop.
What does a Technology Activation Partner do?
HTML https://twitter.com/harlequins/status/1592125196974133249?s=46&t=MOfMsvmgDE3epqgGjjbYxA
#Post#: 99100--------------------------------------------------
Re: Xiaomi is the Official Technology Activation Partner, but
what is Technology Activation?
DIR By: Fearless Fred
Date: November 14, 2022, 9:02 am
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Dunno, but Xiaomi are a maker of Mobile Phones, amongst other
things.
#Post#: 99103--------------------------------------------------
Re: Xiaomi is the Official Technology Activation Partner, but
what is Technology Activation?
DIR By: Ealing_Egg
Date: November 14, 2022, 10:59 am
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Hopefully improve the wifi access in the stadium, which is
useless but I doubt very much that is what it means
#Post#: 99105--------------------------------------------------
Re: Xiaomi is the Official Technology Activation Partner, but
what is Technology Activation?
DIR By: FatQuin
Date: November 14, 2022, 12:36 pm
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--- Quote from: Nico Wilson link ---
>
> Xiaomi has been appointed Official Technology Activation
Partner for Thursday's Baa Baas game at the Stoop.
>
> What does a Technology Activation Partner do?
>
>
>
HTML https://twitter.com/harlequins/status/1592125196974133249?s=46&t=MOfMsvmgDE3epqgGjjbYxA
>
--- End Quote ---
They activate technology.
#Post#: 99112--------------------------------------------------
Re: Xiaomi is the Official Technology Activation Partner, but
what is Technology Activation?
DIR By: Nico Wilson
Date: November 14, 2022, 3:28 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: FatQuin link ---
>
> They activate technology.
>
--- End Quote ---
Thanks. I have just slapped my own forehead.
#Post#: 99115--------------------------------------------------
Re: Xiaomi is the Official Technology Activation Partner, but
what is Technology Activation?
DIR By: SiB
Date: November 14, 2022, 11:34 pm
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Manufacture mobile phones, cameras etc
#Post#: 99116--------------------------------------------------
Re: Xiaomi is the Official Technology Activation Partner, but
what is Technology Activation?
DIR By: Nico Wilson
Date: November 15, 2022, 1:01 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: SiB link ---
>
> Manufacture mobile phones, cameras etc
>
--- End Quote ---
If this article is to be believed, that's not all they do:
HTML https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2020/04/30/exclusive-warning-over-chinese-mobile-giant-xiaomi-recording-millions-of-peoples-private-web-and-phone-use/?sh=781505b1b2a7
--- Quote ---
>
> Exclusive: Warning Over Chinese Mobile Giant Xiaomi Recording
Millions Of People’s ‘Private’ Web And Phone Use
>
> “It’s a backdoor with phone functionality,” quips Gabi Cirlig
about his new Xiaomi phone. He’s only half-joking.
>
> Cirlig is speaking with Forbes after discovering that his
Redmi Note 8 smartphone was watching much of what he was doing
on the phone. That data was then being sent to remote servers
hosted by another Chinese tech giant, Alibaba, which were
ostensibly rented by Xiaomi.
>
> The seasoned cybersecurity researcher found a worrying amount
of his behavior was being tracked, whilst various kinds of
device data were also being harvested, leaving Cirlig spooked
that his identity and his private life was being exposed to the
Chinese company.
>
> When he looked around the Web on the device’s default Xiaomi
browser, it recorded all the websites he visited, including
search engine queries whether with Google or the privacy-focused
DuckDuckGo, and every item viewed on a news feed feature of the
Xiaomi software. That tracking appeared to be happening even if
he used the supposedly private “incognito” mode.
>
> The device was also recording what folders he opened and to
which screens he swiped, including the status bar and the
settings page. All of the data was being packaged up and sent to
remote servers in Singapore and Russia, though the Web domains
they hosted were registered in Beijing.
>
> Meanwhile, at Forbes’ request, cybersecurity researcher Andrew
Tierney investigated further. He also found browsers shipped by
Xiaomi on Google Play—Mi Browser Pro and the Mint Browser—were
collecting the same data. Together, they have more than 15
million downloads, according to Google Play statistics.
>
> Many more millions are likely to be affected by what Cirlig
described as a serious privacy issue, though Xiaomi denied there
was a problem. Valued at $50 billion, Xiaomi is one of the top
four smartphone makers in the world by market share, behind
Apple, Samsung and Huawei. Xiaomi’s big sell is cheap devices
that have many of the same qualities as higher-end smartphones.
But for customers, that low cost could come with a hefty price:
their privacy.
>
> Cirlig thinks that the problems affect many more models than
the one he tested. He downloaded firmware for other Xiaomi
phones—including the Xiaomi MI 10, Xiaomi Redmi K20 and Xiaomi
Mi MIX 3 devices. He then confirmed they had the same browser
code, leading him to suspect they had the same privacy issues.
>
> And there appear to be issues with how Xiaomi is transferring
the data to its servers. Though the Chinese company claimed the
data was being encrypted when transferred in an attempt to
protect user privacy, Cirlig found he was able to quickly see
just what was being taken from his device by decoding a chunk of
information that was hidden with a form of easily crackable
encoding, known as base64. It took Cirlig just a few seconds to
change the garbled data into readable chunks of information.
>
> “My main concern for privacy is that the data sent to their
servers can be very easily correlated with a specific user,”
warned Cirlig.
>
> Xiaomi’s response
>
> In response to the findings, Xiaomi said, “The research claims
are untrue,” and “Privacy and security is of top concern,”
adding that it “strictly follows and is fully compliant with
local laws and regulations on user data privacy matters.” But a
spokesperson confirmed it was collecting browsing data, claiming
the information was anonymized so wasn’t tied to any identity.
They said that users had consented to such tracking.
>
> But, as pointed out by Cirlig and Tierney, it wasn’t just the
website or Web search that was sent to the server. Xiaomi was
also collecting data about the phone, including unique numbers
for identifying the specific device and Android version. Cirlig
said such “metadata” could “easily be correlated with an actual
human behind the screen.”
>
> Xiaomi’s spokesperson also denied that browsing data was being
recorded under incognito mode. Both Cirlig and Tierney, however,
found in their independent tests that their web habits were sent
off to remote servers regardless of what mode the browser was
set to, providing both photos and videos as proof.
>
> When Forbes provided Xiaomi with a video made by Cirlig
showing how his Google search for “****” and a visit to the site
PornHub were sent to remote servers, even when in incognito
mode, the company spokesperson continued to deny that the
information was being recorded. “This video shows the collection
of anonymous browsing data, which is one of the most common
solutions adopted by internet companies to improve the overall
browser product experience through analyzing non-personally
identifiable information,” they added.
>
> Both Cirlig and Tierney said Xiaomi’s behavior was more
invasive than other browsers like Google Chrome or Apple Safari.
“It’s a lot worse than any of the mainstream browsers I have
seen,” Tierney said. “Many of them take analytics, but it's
about usage and crashing. Taking browser behavior, including
URLs, without explicit consent and in private browsing mode, is
about as bad as it gets.”
>
> Cirlig also suspected that his app use was being monitored by
Xiaomi, as every time he opened an app, a chunk of information
would be sent to a remote server. Another researcher who’d
tested Xiaomi devices, though was under an NDA to discuss the
matter openly, said he’d seen the manufacturer’s phone collect
such data. Xiaomi didn’t respond to questions on that issue.
>
> ‘Behavioral Analytics’
>
> Xiaomi appears to have another reason for collecting the data:
to better understand its users’ behavior. It’s using the
services of a behavioral analytics company called Sensors
Analytics. The Chinese startup, also known as Sensors Data, has
raised $60 million since its founding in 2015, most recently
taking $44 million in a round led by New York private equity
firm Warburg Pincus, which also featured funding from Sequoia
Capital China. As described in Pitchbook, a tracker of company
funding, Sensors Analytics is a “provider of an in-depth user
behavior analysis platform and professional consulting
services.” Its tools help its clients in “exploring the hidden
stories behind the indicators in exploring the key behaviors of
different businesses.”
>
> Both Cirlig and Tierney found their Xiaomi apps were sending
data to domains that appeared to reference Sensors Analytics,
including the repeated use of SA. When clicking on one of the
domains, the page contained one sentence: “Sensors Analytics is
ready to receive your data!” There was an API called
SensorDataAPI—an API (application programming interface) being
the software that allows third parties access to app data.
Xiaomi is also listed as a customer on Sensors Data’s website.
>
> The founder and CEO of Sensors Data, Sang Wenfeng, has a long
history in tracking users. At Chinese internet giant Baidu he
built a big data platform for Baidu user logs, according to his
company bio.
>
> Xiaomi’s spokesperson confirmed the relationship with the
startup: “While Sensors Analytics provides a data analysis
solution for Xiaomi, the collected anonymous data are stored on
Xiaomi's own servers and will not be shared with Sensors
Analytics, or any other third-party companies.”
>
> It’s the second time in two months that a huge Chinese tech
company has been seen watching over users’ phone habits. A
security app with a “private” browser made by Cheetah Mobile, a
public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, was seen
collecting information on Web use, Wi-Fi access point names and
more granular data like how a user scrolled on visited Web
pages. Cheetah argued it needed to collect the information to
protect users and improve their experience.
>
> Late in his research, Cirlig also discovered that Xiaomi’s
music player app on his phone was collecting information on his
listening habits: what songs were played and when.
>
> One message was clear to the researcher: when you’re
listening, Xiaomi is listening, too.
>
> UPDATE: Xiaomi posted a blog in which it delineated how and
when it collects visited URLs visited by its users. Read it in
full here.
>
> The company reiterated that the data transferred from Xiaomi
devices and browsers was anonymized and not attached to any
identity.
>
> On May 3, Xiaomi announced that in its next browser update,
it’d allow customers to stop their visited websites being sent
to the Chinese company’s servers.
>
> The browsers will include “an option in incognito mode ... to
switch on/off the aggregated data collection, in an effort to
further strengthen the control we grant users over sharing their
own data with Xiaomi. The software updates will be submitted to
Google Play for approval within today.”
>
> “We believe this functionality, in combination with our
approach of maintaining aggregated data in non-identifiable
form, goes beyond any legal requirements and demonstrates our
company’s commitment to user privacy,” Xiaomi added.
>
--- End Quote ---
#Post#: 99117--------------------------------------------------
Re: Xiaomi is the Official Technology Activation Partner, but
what is Technology Activation?
DIR By: East Sussex Chris
Date: November 15, 2022, 1:32 am
---------------------------------------------------------
It means when we go into the ground they are secretly going to
put a chip into us and the Chinese will be able to control us
from Thursday onwards.
#Post#: 99119--------------------------------------------------
Re: Xiaomi is the Official Technology Activation Partner, but
what is Technology Activation?
DIR By: never sleep
Date: November 15, 2022, 2:28 am
---------------------------------------------------------
And I, for one, welcome our new Chinese overlords.
I'd like to remind them as a "Lions Captain" on this board, I
can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their mobile
phone factories.
#Post#: 99121--------------------------------------------------
Re: Xiaomi is the Official Technology Activation Partner, but
what is Technology Activation?
DIR By: PhilQuin2
Date: November 15, 2022, 3:08 am
---------------------------------------------------------
-Oh, I see.
-I thought it meant they were the chaps who switch those
pre-match flame throwers on & off.
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