Three Models Of China's Xiaomi Mi Phones Are Pictured During Their Launch
Three models of China's Xiaomi Mi phones are pictured during their launch in New Delhi July 15, 2014. China's Xiaomi said it intends to invest heavily in India as the budget smartphone maker launched on Tuesday its flagship Mi phone and other products in the world's third largest smartphone market, currently dominated by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. Reuters

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the privacy authority in China has initiated an investigation to gather information against Xiaomi's manufacturers in their Hong Kong office on the basis of nine registered complaints. A security company also charged the Chinese phone maker of allegedly sending user information back to servers in Mainland China, a newspaper called the Apple Daily reported last September 9.

These reports come after the earlier accusations made by a company called F-Secure a security company that found user information from cloud services offered by Xiaomi being sent back to servers in China. But the company's Vice President Hugo Barra said that this was to test whether text messages sent by users could be perhaps sent by using data connection instead of the carrier's SMS gateway to save users money. They also made the cloud service an opt-in option.

ZDNet reported that a multinational information security solution provider Nexusguard Consulting has revealed the possible loop holes in the popular messaging app. The messaging application WhatsApp downloaded from the App market on the Xiaomi smartphone could be tweaked to get users information back to not one but nine servers in Mainland China, the firm stated. This would mean that the user data is not safe with the app and it raises questions not only about Xiaomi's credibility, but also if users must go on using the phone. If loyal Xiaomi users continue using the phone, then this information about the privacy leak may lead to a discontinuation of WhatsApp among the users. The version of WhatsApp downloaded from Google play store sends information to the U.S.

The Apple Daily also reported that this information is received by China Unicorn the telecommunication company owned by the state and two other internet companies that are based in Guangzhou and Beijing.

Though the company has already apologised to the users in August, this recent findings seem to indicate that the upgrade to fix this issue is not having any effect. The Apple Daily also reported that even after installing the patch the Xiaomi phone keeps uploading information automatically to the server.