Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is making its cloud messaging service optional on its devices. The company had recently come under fire following security concerns about the service sending user information to servers in China. Xiaomi VP of international affairs Hugo Barra put up a post on Google Plus, explaining that the company is allowing users to opt out of the service if they wish to.
The Mi Cloud messaging service is similar to Apple’s iMessage service, which allows Apple’s iPhone users to send free messages to each other through the Internet. Mi Cloud messaging does the same for users of Xiaomi’s smartphones.
Xiaomi had recently come under the scanner after security firm F-Secure found that the service seemed to be sharing information with a server in China. This included information like the users IMEI numbers, phone contacts, phone number and the text messages that the device received. This has raised concern amongst users about their data being accessible to the Chinese government. This is the second time in as many weeks that Barra has had to explain Mi Cloud related services, after putting up a similar post on July 30 about the Mi Cloud storage, which provided cloud storage to Mi phone users.