Lawmakers want US Commerce Department to probe Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus

General News
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https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/lawmakers-want-us-commerce-department-probe-chinese-smartphone-maker-oneplus-2025-06-27/

You might remember OnePlus as brand formerly popular among the tech enthusiast community for its embrace of custom ROMs and value during the 2010s.

Despite being a Chinese company, OnePlus/Oppo was able to avoid much of the regulatory challenges faced by Huawei. Now, two American lawmakers have called for an investigation over alleged data sharing with Chinese servers.

Two U.S. lawmakers on Friday asked the Commerce Department to investigate whether devices sold by Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus in the United States pose security concerns, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

Representative John Moolenaar, a Republican who chairs a House of Representatives committee on China, and the panel’s top Democrat, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, noted that major U.S. retailers sell OnePlus devices for use on two U.S. wireless networks.

The lawmakers said a recent analysis by a commercial company provided to the committee indicates that these devices may potentially collect and transmit extensive user data – including sensitive personal information to servers under Chinese jurisdiction without explicit user consent.

Shenzhen-based OnePlus did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The U.S. Commerce Department also did not immediately comment.

Although there is no strong data evidence cited by the lawmakers, I wouldn’t be surprised by this fact. According to an University of Edinburgh and Trinity College Dublin study, Chinese brands like RealMe, Oppo/OnePlus, and Xiaomi were found to send personal information without user consent.

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Security audit raises severe warnings on Chinese smartphone models - Ars Technica

The OnePlus 8T 5G—arguably, the best-known and most widely marketed phone of the three—was the only one to escape the NCSC’s scrutiny without any red flags raised.

OnePlus has it’s faults (as do many phone manufacturers) but they are being targeted for just being Chinese in this case. Now the OnePlus ColorOs is chock full of mandatory Chinese applications and falls within the same scope of of spyware. OxygenOS is NOT the same and intended to not be in order to reach a larger market outside of Asia. There are some telemetry settings that should be adjusted but are no worse than what is found in the USA regarding google or Samsung sending telemetry to Korea.

Phone telemetry is very commonly used and should be removed where possible anyway.

So in short it is a witch hunt to keep “American made Phones” the only option in some near future IMO.

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