Hoax or Reality?
A VIRAL WHATSAPP MESSAGE and many videos on YouTube have been doing rounds since the last few days, stating Samsung has set up a conspiracy in stealing the user’s data and uploading it to their servers without the user’s knowledge. One video demonstrates how Samsung has intelligently placed a chip in its smartphones concealed in the battery sticker, hidden from the user, to send the data to their servers — including call records, messages, photos and videos.
The person demonstrating the ‘conspiracy’ by Samsung in the video, shows the chip placed behind the battery. He peels off the sticker on the battery to reveal the paper-thin chip, provoking people to remove the chip before their data is stolen. He goes ahead to show how to reveal the chip and remove it, stating that removing the chip will not damage the phone or hamper its working in any way.
The videos however are only misleading the audiences. The paperthin component, the videos are urging people to remove, is nothing but NFC (Near Field Communication) antenna, a feature that is available in most high-end smartphones, and is meant for communicating between two devices. The NFC antenna is placed on the battery on some devices because it needs to be placed as close as possible to the back of the phone. This video has been viral for a few days and people falling for the hoax message are opening up their devices and removing the NFC antenna from the battery. Samsung would have no intention of stealing anyone’s data, and even if they did, they could easily embed it on the motherboard itself. The video is being reported going viral on Facebook and e-mails. Don’t believe any of it.