On February 2023, technical researchers from the University of Edinburgh and Trinity College Dublin published a paper analysing the degrees to which data is unknowingly transmitted from Android smartphones originating from China. They focused on devices sold by three of the most popular vendors in the country--OnePlus, Xiaomi and Oppo Realme--knowing that China has the largest number of Android smartphone users in the world.

By using a combination of static and dynamic code analysis techniques, they found that an "alarming number of preinstalled system, vendor and third-party apps are granted dangerous privileges." Privacy sensitive information related to the device, its geolocation, the user profile, and call history is being transmitted without prior consent or notification. This information is being sent to the device vendor, service operators and the mobile network operators. These findings have strong implications for the right to privacy and freedom of expression.

Notably, this information continues to be collected and distributed when the user leaves China, affecting Chinese diaspora communities and human rights defenders who are carrying out their work abroad.

The media outlet The Register asked OnePlus, Xiaomi, and Oppo Realme to comment but they did not.

On March 2023, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited Google to respond to these allegations on 20 March 2023, but the company did not respond. Google is the developer of Android.