A pair of US lawmakers have called on the US Department of Commerce to investigate OnePlus over allegations that the company’s devices transmit data to Chinese servers without user consent, according to a report by Reuters. This is a bipartisan effort, with Republican Representative John Moolenaar (MI) and Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL) spearheading the calls for an investigation.
There’s no actual data to go along with these allegations, but the lawmakers claim to have seen documentation by a “commercial company” that suggests OnePlus participates in the aforementioned practice. The initial report suggests “potential transfers of sensitive personal information and screenshots.” The word “potential” seems to be doing a lot of heavy lifting here.
That brings me to a question. If this is serious enough to warrant an official investigation by the DoC, why hasn’t the government warned US residents to stop using OnePlus devices? That would seem like a no-brainer. Instead, we just got some vaguely alarming language and allegations. Engadget has reached out to OnePlus and will update this story when we hear back.
There’s only one thing for certain here. OnePlus is indeed a Chinese company, leaving it open to the types of allegations that have plagued TikTok and its parent company ByteDance. The primary reason behind the on-again/off-again TikTok ban is that the company’s Chinese ownership could allow the foreign government to access user data and influence American citizens.
Just like with the allegations against OnePlus, there’s no actual evidence that ByteDance engages in any nefarious practices. TikTok does collect user data, but studies indicate that it doesn’t go above and beyond American companies like Meta and X.
