OnePlus provided an update on its data collection policies, with plans to improve clarity and change the information it gathers by the end of this month.

In a blog post, Carl Pei, co-founder, confirmed it was collecting information in two streams – usage analytics and device information – stating the former is to “better understand general phone behaviour and optimise Oxygen OS” and the latter “to better provide after-sales support”.

He said for users who had not opted-in to its user experience programme, the two are not tied together.

And addressing user concerns around privacy, Pei said “at no point have we shared this information with outside parties”; data is only looked at in aggregate and was “collected with the intention of improving our product and service offerings”.

By the end of October 2017, all OnePlus phones running Oxygen OS will have a prompt in the setup wizard seeking consent for the user experience programme. It will also clearly indicate the programme collects usage analytics, and a terms of service agreement will further explain its analytics collection.

Pei also said OnePlus will “no longer be collecting telephone numbers, MAC addresses and Wi-Fi information”. The inclusion of these among the data collected certainly raised eyebrows, due to the fact this is personal information and it is not immediate clear why OnePlus would need it.