Chinese court finds Gionee guilty of inflicting more than 20 million phones with malware
The court found that more than 20 million Gionee phones were intentionally inflicted with Trojan Horse via an app between December 2018 and October 2019
- Dec 6, 2020,
- Updated Dec 7, 2020 12:53 AM IST
A Chinese court has given its verdict on a contentious issue involving Gionee phones. A report published by the China Judgement Document Network said a verdict has finally been given on the illegal control of computer information systems found to have been executed on Gionee phones.
The publication said that the court found that more than 20 million Gionee phones were intentionally inflicted with Trojan Horse via an app between December 2018 and October 2019. The report adds that this particular app was used as a tool to profit from users through unsolicited ads and other illegitimate means.
The court found that Beijing Baice connived with the defendant Shenzhen Zhipu Technology (a subsidiary of Gionee) to implant a Trojan horse program into users' phones through the update of the "Story Lock Screen" app. As the report explains, the software is automatically updated on the affected Gionee mobile phones without the user's knowledge using the Pull method.
As per the information, the court details revealed that from December 2018 to October 2019, both Beijing Baice and Shenzhen Zhipu continued to carry out the "pull activities" a total of 2.88 billion times. It is believed that from April 2019, the number of devices covered by the monthly "pull activity" surpassed more than 21.75 million -- of which 26,519,921 Gionee mobile phones were involved in October 2019 alone. The two companies are estimated to have earned RMB 27.85 million from the "pulling" business.
In relation to this, the Chinese court has ruled that the defendant Shenzhen Zhipu Technology tried to illegally control the computer information system as it also found Xu Li, Zhu Ying, Jia Zhengqiang, and Pan Qi also guilty of illegally controlling the computer information system. They were sentenced to three to three years and six months of jail term and have also been fined 200,000 yuan.
A Chinese court has given its verdict on a contentious issue involving Gionee phones. A report published by the China Judgement Document Network said a verdict has finally been given on the illegal control of computer information systems found to have been executed on Gionee phones.
The publication said that the court found that more than 20 million Gionee phones were intentionally inflicted with Trojan Horse via an app between December 2018 and October 2019. The report adds that this particular app was used as a tool to profit from users through unsolicited ads and other illegitimate means.
The court found that Beijing Baice connived with the defendant Shenzhen Zhipu Technology (a subsidiary of Gionee) to implant a Trojan horse program into users' phones through the update of the "Story Lock Screen" app. As the report explains, the software is automatically updated on the affected Gionee mobile phones without the user's knowledge using the Pull method.
As per the information, the court details revealed that from December 2018 to October 2019, both Beijing Baice and Shenzhen Zhipu continued to carry out the "pull activities" a total of 2.88 billion times. It is believed that from April 2019, the number of devices covered by the monthly "pull activity" surpassed more than 21.75 million -- of which 26,519,921 Gionee mobile phones were involved in October 2019 alone. The two companies are estimated to have earned RMB 27.85 million from the "pulling" business.
In relation to this, the Chinese court has ruled that the defendant Shenzhen Zhipu Technology tried to illegally control the computer information system as it also found Xu Li, Zhu Ying, Jia Zhengqiang, and Pan Qi also guilty of illegally controlling the computer information system. They were sentenced to three to three years and six months of jail term and have also been fined 200,000 yuan.