Image: 800px-HTC_Evo_4G by Anya1986 on Flickr
Do you remember Apple’s disrespect of their customers’ privacy?
It now turns out that the Taiwanese
HTC ain’t any better
in that respect.
Privacy International, whom I follow on Google Reader issued an article citing a very detailed report prepared by Artem Russakovski, Justin Case and Trevor Eckhart and made available on the Android Police website.
It turns out that HTC, in the absence of any corresponding consent, collect the personal data of their users and share that data with third parties.
Assuming that HTC have deployed the same business model also within the European Union, they have committed some
serious breaches
under the applicable data protection and privacy legislation here.
First, HTC should be aware of the fact that by processing personal data they act as a data controller and are therefore under the obligation to process the data fairly and lawfully and only for an explicit and legitimate purpose.
Second, when processing personal data, HTC must ensure that the buyers and users of their mobile devices, i.e. the data subjects have served HTC with an
explicit consent
to that data processing.
Not that HTC fail to obtain that explicit consent, they moreover mislead their users!
It is said to work like that: HTC ostensibly offer their users the option not to allow the collection and use of personal information, but even if the users select that option, HTC collects and processes the data anyway.
And third, by so doing, HTC have failed to prevent an
unwarranted intrusion
into the private sphere of their users.
I think that HTC, being a major competitor to Apple, should offer its customers a set of good privacy options, in order to create an advantage over the Cupertino company.
Instead, HTC seems to have opted to spy on and fool their customers thereby joining Apple on the road to perdition…
How about you?
Would you prefer one mobile device manufacturer over another, if it offers you a better privacy protection?