Huawei was accused of tracking MWC 2023 visitors

Many of you have probably wondered at least once why the United States restricts Huawei to such an extent. Some believe that this is related to Huawei’s success in 2019. Huawei’s success continued until it became the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. This was a serious threat to brands like Samsung and Apple. Also, Huawei is considered a national security threat in the United States due to its close ties to the Chinese government. Now, in addition to all the limitations of Huawei, it seems that the company is involved in a new frontier. Huawei with an accusation based on Tracking visitors to MWC 2023 Barcelona is facing

For years, there have been concerns that Huawei’s equipment and devices are secretly spying on companies and consumers and sending data to Beijing. Huawei has always denied this, but Chinese companies are forced to spy if requested by the government. Additionally, in 2013, T-Mobile claimed that Huawei engineers had stolen information on parts of one of its phone testing robots, called Tappy. According to reports, Huawei has used this data to improve its robot. In 2017, a Seattle court jury ruled in favor of T-Mobile and fined Huawei $4.8 million.

Was Huawei tracking the movements of MWC visitors using its security badges?

Now in 2023, Huawei has been accused of tracking MWC visitors who showed up in Barcelona. The Chinese manufacturer was expected to introduce its next flagship P60 series at the event, but that didn’t happen. However, this company managed to grab the headlines but for no good reason.

Apparently, some MWC visitors who received Huawei security badges for booth access did not hand them in when they left the show. Some curious visitors opened the small plastic piece that was part of the badge and found a chip that looked suspiciously like a device that tracks one’s movement.

One of the mentioned possibilities is that Huawei used the low-power Beacon technology in its booth. The technology can track people at a distance of 70 meters (approximately 229.5 feet). Of course, the use of radio frequency (RFID) and Bluetooth technology is mentioned behind the said badge. Huawei says: In this sign, we have used RFID and Bluetooth technologies to know the location of the visitors in order to measure the user’s behavior. This information is collected and processed only for the purpose of checking visitors’ interest in Huawei products. Our goal is simply to increase the quality of service. We will protect such information in accordance with the Company’s Privacy Policy.

A Huawei spokesperson also noted that the badge is only used at the booth and will be handed out when visitors leave. There is no reason to track location.

But the main problem here is that many participants who visited the Huawei booth accuse Huawei of not being transparent. According to users, considering that Huawei has been repeatedly accused of installing backdoors in its mobile software and sending users’ information to Chinese government officials, such a move confirms the rumors.

Some people believe that Huawei makes great smartphones and should have the right to compete globally. But Huawei’s opponents have a different opinion and expect that Huawei will continue to be punished by the United States. Since visitors to the Huawei booth had to hand in their badges when leaving the exhibition, the charge in question does not seem very logical. The Chinese giant also denies all these accusations. But surely its answers were not so convincing for the US authorities to cancel the sanctions imposed on this company. Huawei stated that GSMA officials will investigate the situation, but there is definitely nothing suspicious.