Carl Pei himself has confirmed that OxygenOS – the operating system used on OnePlus smartphones – has been collecting private user data. He, however, claimed that the company will be ending the data collection by end October.
Pei commented in a forum thread that OnePlus was collecting data,”so we can better understand general phone behavior and optimize OxygenOS for a better overall user experience.” That said, OnePlus did not specify what kind of data was collected, but the CEO did say it includes telephone numbers, MAC Addresses and WiFi information.
OnePlus said the reason of the data collection is to “provide better after-sales support to its customers.”
Users can opt-out of the usage analytics collection program by navigating to ‘Settings’ -> ‘Advanced’ -> ‘Join user experience program’. By November, all phones running OxygenOS will feature a prompt in the initial setup wizard that will ask users if they want to join in the user experience program.
That said, OnePlus should already have collected all the information available from its customers. So opting out of the programme probably won’t do much at this point.
(Source: OnePlus )