MWC: Huawei tracked visitors

A scandal has become public around Huawei’s booth at this year’s MWC. The Chinese company equipped all people who visited the booth with a badge. As it now turned out, this obligatory appendage contained a tracker that was only explained in small print on the back, but not verbally or otherwise obviously. The GSMA, as the organizer of the trade show, was also unaware of this.

Tracking should reveal walkways

The tracking via badge was apparently intended to reveal the walkways within the Huawei booth. The company apparently hoped that this would provide information about which products are visited particularly frequently. According to the small print on the back of the badge, the data was to be processed on the basis of Huawei’s own privacy policy.

Besides the lack of clear information about the tracking, there was another problem in connection with this. In the hustle and bustle of the trade show, many visitors forgot to take their badge back at the exit of the booth. As a result, they were also tracked outside Huawei’s booth, sometimes even outside the trade show. This data also flowed to Huawei.

The GSMA, as the organizer of the trade show, was apparently unaware of the tracking action. It speaks of serious accusations in this regard, which are to be investigated in detail. It is not yet clear whether Huawei will face consequences from this side. The company itself has not yet commented on the accusations and the announcement of an investigation by GSMA.

Huawei’s tarnished reputation

Huawei’s tarnished reputation is likely to be further affected by the current incident. The Chinese company has already been under suspicion for quite some time that it has been forwarding data to the state’s dictatorial regime in a roundabout way. For this reason, public debates have erupted over the possible involvement of Huawei components in the 5G rollout in several countries. In Sweden, Huawei has been officially excluded from the 5G rollout entirely. In Germany, too, such an exclusion has been under discussion for some time.