Gionee Held Guilty by Chinese Court on Charge of Injecting Trojan Horse In Over 20 Million Smartphones to Benefit From Unsolicited Ads

Beijing, December 6: A court in China held smartphone maker Gionee guilty of injecting trojan horse in over 20 million smartphones, in order to earn benefits through unsolicited ads. The confirmation of the judgment against Gionee was made in a report published by the China Judgement Document Network. Jail terms and fines were slapped on officials of Shenzhen Zhipu Technology, a subsidiary of Gionee.

The trojan was injected through the 'Story Lockscreen App'. Whenever, the user updated this application, the injected trojan got automatically and updated and showed a spree of advertisements to the users. Gionee M12 with Quad Rear Cameras & 5,100mAh Battery Launched, Check Price, Features & Specifications Here.

This phenomenon, explain experts, is referred to as "pulling". The norms in most countries bar technological device makers from using the tactic to spam a smartphone with unsolicited advertisements.

According to reports, the rogue officials of Shenzhen Zhipu made upto 27 million yuan through these ads. The pulling activity was conducted between December 2018 and October 2019, the reports said.

The court held  Xu Li, Zhu Ying, Jia Zhengqiang, and Pan Qi - personnel of Shenzhen Zhipu- guilty of illegally controlling the computer information system. On conviction, they were sentenced to three to three-and-a-half years of imprisonment, along with a fine of 20,000 yuan.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 06, 2020 09:09 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).