Mass-Market African Phones Found to Be Covertly Harvesting User Data
Reporting has identified that the most widely used mobile phones across Africa are covertly collecting user data without adequate disclosure, raising significant privacy and digital sovereignty concerns at a continental scale. The finding affects device markets where low-cost handsets dominate consumer access to mobile services.
Transsion: 40 million phones that can't say no
The tracking system baked into Tecno, Infinix and Itel handsets — which together account for nearly half of all smartphones sold in Africa — cannot be switched off. It runs as part of the operating system itself. There is no setting to disable it, and removing it can brick the phone entirely.
That is the detail that cuts through everything else here.
For most African smartphone buyers, a low-cost Transsion device isn't a choice among many — it's the only option the price allows. Which means the architecture of this data collection isn't a dark pattern users can opt around. It's the condition of being online at all.
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- Africa’s most popular phones have a tracking problem · techcentral.co.za · T2