Huawei is being accused of unusual behavior during the Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona, Spain. Curious visitors who were not able to return their security badges to Huawei opened up the small plastic container attached to the lanyard and found something suspicious.
(Photo : PAU BARRENA/AFP via Getty Images)
Visitors stand next to Chinese manufacturer Huawei stand at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry's biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona on February 28, 2023.
Tracking MWC23 Visitors
Visitors to Huawei's booth during the Mobile World Congress 2023 are supposed to return their badges and lanyards when they leave. But some people who were forgetful sneaked through Huawei's security parameters and were not able to return their lanyards.
According to a report from Light Reading, visitors found a small plastic container on their lanyard that contains an electronic chip. Among those visitors is Nokia Europe Senior Vice President Rold Werner who believed that this could be used as a location tracker.
This made MWC attendees unhappy and surprised as the company was regularly accused of planting backdoors in its products, confirming previous reports and rumors despite denying it.
Aside from Werner, several users from Twitter also shared their disappointment regarding Huawei's tracker. @Officialruuki sarcastically stated, "Amazing. Well done to all the operators who use this "Orange" Company from China called #Huawei."
The tweet includes an explanation of European Union rules under the General Data Protection Regulation that states every individual's right to know information is being collected about them, the purpose, and how it will be used.
Huawei's Response
Phone Arena reported that the company is using lowe-powered Beacon technology at the booth that can track people over a distance of 70 meters, but Huawei did mention at the back of the badges the use of radio frequency and Bluetooth technology.
It stated, "We use RFID and Bluetooth technology to collect the swipe time of this Huawei Card at the entrance of the Huawei exhibition area, real-time location information, and the residence time information of [these] Huawei Card holders within the Huawei exhibition area."
The disclaimer added that such information will be collected and processed only for the purpose of analyzing the interests of their invitees for the company products in an effort to enhance their service quality. Huawei ensures the people that this information will be protected according to its Privacy Policy.
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Meanwhile, a spokesperson from the company stated that this security pass from Huawei is only used in the booth and returned when visitors get out. Huawei does not need or intend to track the location of its visitors during the MWC 2023 in Barcelona.
The backlash was not surprising as GizChina reported that Huawei was criticized for its lack of transparency. This situation made their stance worst after being accused several times of installing backdoors on its software and sending user data to China. This was on national security grounds which made US authorities impose sanctions against Huawei.
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