In the aftermath of the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona from February 27 to March 2, 2023, several visitors to Huawei’s exhibition stand noticed that the badge given at the entrance contained tracers. A technology assumed by the Chinese manufacturer, but which took the organizers of the MWC by surprise.
This is bad press that Huawei would have done without. As the Mobile World Congress 2023 trade show (February 27 to March 2) in Barcelona had just ended, several visitors to the Chinese manufacturer Huawei’s exhibition stand noticed that the badge given to them at the entrance contained several data plotters.
According to the specialized online media LightReadingwhich reports this discovery from Friday March 3, Huawei would have asked all visitors to wear this badge obligatorily within the stand, then to return it at the exit.
Analyze the time spent in front of your products
One of these visitors is none other than the vice-president of Nokia Europe, Rolf Werner. In a photo shared with LightReading, we observe that the small round plastic block attached to the name badge contains a small green printed circuit. A circuit which, according to the manager’s statements to the specialized media, can be used as a tracer.
If this discovery surprised the visitors, this technology would however be indicated on the back of the loaned badge. A text specifies that the Chinese manufacturer used ” RFID and Bluetooth technology to collect the passage of this Huawei card at the entrance of the Huawei exhibition area, the real-time location and the time spent by the holders of this Huawei card in the Huawei exhibition area. This information will be collected and processed solely for the purpose of analyzing the general interest of our guests in our products in order to improve the quality of our service. We will protect this information in accordance with our privacy policy.»
A context of European mistrust
In a statement sent on Tuesday, March 7, Huawei reacted to this matter by stating that “the distributed RFID and Bluetooth modules do not integrate any personal data. The RFID module is used to control access to the stand so as not to exceed the maximum reception capacity and thus guarantee the safety of visitorsclaiming that Bluetooth data is anonymized. Despite these promises and this message full of transparency, the choice of tracking visitors remains open to criticism if this makes it possible to precisely measure the interest shown by members of competing companies in certain products.
Above all, this new case feeds the doubts of European governments and companies towards Huawei, accused of wanting to collect personal data from its users or of spying on Europeans for the Chinese government. Doubts that had caused numerous bans on Huawei 5G antennas in Europe.
In the case of this tracker badge, by chance it was a Nokia executive who realized it: the Finnish brand is a direct competitor of Huawei on the 5G infrastructure market (15% market share, compared to 30% for Chinese).
An investigation is open
The presence of this badge surprised even the organizers of the MWC of Barcelona. Questioned by LightReadingthe GSM Association said it was surprised:Sure, you know some vendors require booth visitors to remove competitor lanyards and branding for obvious reasons, but the idea of tracking devices is a serious allegation. We are investigating this, but have no details to share at this time.»
A situation that seems to make the organizers uncomfortable. As remindedLightReadingthe GSM Association obtains the majority of its income thanks to the MWC, of which Huawei is the 3rd biggest sponsor… with Nokia and Ericsson.
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