Chinese handset giant Xiaomi has revealed plans to open an Indian data center to allay privacy fears surrounding user data being stored in China.
The vendor plans to open the Indian facility to support its ambitions of selling 100,000 handsets in India per week, the BBCreported.
The move comes after the Indian air force asked its personnel not to use Xiaomi smartphones due to fears user data from the company's cloud service is being stored in Beijing, Quartz Indiasaid.
In August, security firm F-Secure reported Xiaomi was collecting data including call history, text messages, IMEI number and the operator's name and storing them in Chinese servers. Xiaomi responded with a software update to ensure users can opt out of this data being collected.
Opening an Indian server marks an attempt to allay such concerns. Xiaomi is already in the process of moving data from users outside of China off Chinese servers and on to Amazon's data centers.
Xiaomi has stated that it does not collect user data without permission, and that the data it stores as part of its cloud service is encrypted and is not stored longer than is required.
But the company's status as a Chinese brand has left it exposed to the same sorts of suspicions that have affected Huawei during its international expansion drive.
Huawei has managed impressive growth despite these suspicions, and rotating CEO Guo Ping recently asserted that the ban on US government officials using Huawei equipment has not had a significant impact on its global expansion.