Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is under suspicion for allegedly following visitors at its booth at the 2023 Mobile World Congress (MWC). MWC is a big technology event and this year it was held in Barcelona. Many companies, including Google, showcased their new products at the event.
While the company booth attracted great attention, rumors spread that Huawei was hiding trackers inside security badges called “Huawei Pass”. Pass cards contained a lanyard, badge, and plastic cap and had to be returned to the company stand by their owners. However, some visitors forgot to do this and found the badge quite suspicious.
Rolf Werner, Senior Vice President of Europe at Nokia, says he disassembled the badge and found circuits that could potentially be used as a tracer. According to Light Reading, there is a possibility that the company will use Beacon Technology at its booth, which can track distances of up to 70 meters using low power signals. On the back of the Huawei card, he also mentions local area radio systems that can assist in tracking: “At the entrance of the Huawei fairground, this Huawei Card uses RFID and Bluetooth technology to collect the swipe time, real-time location information, and the residence time of these Huawei Card holders in the Huawei fairground. We use, such information will only be collected and processed for the purpose of analyzing the general interest of our guests in our products to improve our service quality. We will protect such information according to our Privacy Policy.”
On the other hand, a Huawei spokesperson said, “The Huawei card is only used at the stand and is returned when visitors go out. There is no need for location tracking.” He said he had no details to share.
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