Taiwan Calls Off Attack Dogs, Clears Apple, Samsung Of Privacy Rules Violations

For the past four months, Taiwanese regulators have been conducting an investigation into Apple, Samsung, and other smartphone brands for being in breach of local data protection laws. On Tuesday, the National Communications Commissions announced that all accused companies were innocent, according to its findings.

A report released by the NCC revealed that the investigation into 12 brands, which also included Chinese company Xiaomi, concluded that these companies and their products did not violate the law. However, NCC official James Lou added that the commissions would request that mobile phone makers take steps to make information transmission more secure.

The results of the NCC’s findings are underwhelming considering that, earlier in December, NCC vice chairman Yu Hsiao-Cheng had said that the commissions had discovered problems with 12 phone models. While no specifics had been provided, the vice chairman further added that the Taiwanese government would fine offending companies up to $6.43 million or ban the sale of such devices. 

Taiwan’s probe, which started in September, was initially focused on Xiaomi phones in response to media reports that some of the company’s models were automatically sending use data back to its servers based in mainland China.