Realme user data capturing feature under govt scanner? Rajeev Chandrasekhar hints at it

Indian user data on realme smartphones is being sent to China? That is what is being asked in a tweet by an Indian Twitter user and adding heft to that tweet was the reaction from Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar who said that the government will take a look at it. The reaction followed quickly on the heels of a tweet by Twitter user Rishi Bagree, which said, "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."

He added, "You can only see this "on" by default feature when you go to Settings -> Additional Settings -> System Services -> Enhanced Intelligent Services."

Indicating that the Indian user's consent has not been taken before enabling the feature, Bagree said, "Indian users are kept in dark to share their data without their consent."

He concluded by saying, “This is basically forced consent, since it's on by default. Is this data being sent to China?”

Check out the realme description for the Enhanced Intelligent Services feature:

"Enhanced Intelligent Services" is a service that improves device functions and your user experience based on how you use your device, mainly by optimising the charging and providing personalisation features including wallpapers.

To provide the charging optimisation feature, "Enhanced Intelligent Services" needs to collect your location information and app usage statistics and obtain the Location permission. To provide wallpapers and other personalisation features, "Enhanced Intelligent Services" needs to collect statistics about your unread messages and missed calls, calendar events and device usage statistics, and obtain the following permissions: connect to the Internet and read your calendar events, call logs and SMS messages.

You can manage permissions by going to "Settings - Apps - App management (Show system apps) - Intelligent Services - Permissions". To turn "Enhanced Intelligent Services" on or off, you can go to "Settings - Additional settings - System services - Enhanced Intelligent Services". Once "Enhanced Intelligent Services" is turned off, apps and functions that require this service will be unavailable. For details, refer to the Privacy.

Following this observation, Minister of State for Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, announced that the government would examine the matter.

Chandrasekhar made this statement in response to a retweet of the original tweet, which included a screenshot and allegations against the Chinese smartphone brand realme.