Commentary
In a land of 330 million people, 280 million Americans own a smartphone. Not surprisingly, smartphones are by far the most popular digital devices in our lives. We spend inordinate amounts of time on our phones, scrolling, swiping, and searching for information.
Which begs the question: where was your smartphone made? Probably in China. This is problematic on so many levels.
Five of the 10 most popular phone brands in the world are Chinese: Huawei, Lenovo, LG, Oppo, and Xiaomi. Chinese phones are synonymous with affordability. They are also synonymous with spying.
For example, the cameras on phones manufactured by Vivo, a Chinese multinational technology company headquartered in Guangdong, a coastal province located in southeast China, have secretly recorded users’ activities and stolen their data. In addition to Vivo, other phone makers—like Oppo, Xiaomi, and Gionee—have been accused of harvesting users’ data and passwords….