Why just Xiaomi, all our phones can leak data

China's fastest growing consumer tech company, Xiaomi's unprecedented success in India has not come without hurdles. But the latest controversy, which pertains to a warning circular issued by the Indian Airforce against using its phones, can be more damaging than anything the company has faced yet.

While not without merit, the warning is essentially based on outdated information, which stems from a F-secure report issued way back in August. The company has already made amends to rectify the situation.

Back then, F-Secure ran a test which proved that Xiaomi's Redmi 1S phone was sending back data to servers in China, insinuating that the phone was leaking data. Xiaomi admitted that its Mi Cloud service was "on" by default on the phone, and since then it has issued an over-the-air update which disables the service by default and makes it an opt-in. The IAF report also took into account data from CERT-IN which stated the data was going to a server in Beijing, home to a Chinese government agency.

Scary, indeed. But in this day and age, not so much.

The bigger question is why don't we feel the same caution about our coveted iPhones, which have iMessage enabled? While using iMessage, the data goes through Apple's servers. Or for that matter Gmail, Hangouts, Maps, Drive and many other Google Cloud services which harvest user data and deliver contextual information in the form of a service that is called Google Now?

If there is anything that the NSA and Edward Snowden revelations have proven, the NSA has been snooping on everyone's private data in the name of US' national security.

Of course, Apple will say that no one has access to its servers and the same story is being repeated by Microsoft, Google and Facebook. Snowden's revelations have shown that the big three have been in cahoots with the NSA, which has been slyly snooping on all our data. And since most of these data centres are in the US, these big companies have to oblige one way or the other.

In fact, things get murkier with Google, as recent revelation by Julian Assange has shown.

The fact of the matter is there is no privacy. If you use a smartphone - and chances are it is based on either Google's, Apple's or Microsoft's platforms - then you have some data in the cloud, and there is someone out there looking at your data. Be they Chinese, American or hell, even a Martian.

So why are we Indian's creating a ruckus about Xiaomi?. For all intents, most of our local Micromax phones are not safe either, considering they are made in China and use the same underlining operating system (Android) as Xiaomi.

Next time you look at your phone, weigh upon this.