Due to a bug made by HMD Global, certain Nokia brand smartphones attempted to send activation data to China during installation. A single shipment of the Nokia 7 Plus model was falsely equipped with device activation software for another country, HMD Global said Friday.

"However, these data were never processed, and with them no people could be identified," the company said in a statement. The error of the "single batch" had been fixed in February. "We can confirm that no personal information has been disclosed to third parties."

The case became public through a report by the Norwegian television broadcaster NRK, which had been alerted by a user to the strange data transmission. According to NRK, the devices contacted the address "vnet.cn", which is used by the Chinese mobile network operator China Mobile. The domain name is registered on a "China Internet Network Information Center".

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The phones attempted to transmit data such as the number of the SIM card, the device identification number (IMEI), the location of the radio tower and also the so-called MAC identification number, which is used for WLAN connections, according to NRK.

The Finnish DPA is considering taking inquiries in the case. The Ombudsman for Privacy in Finland, Reijo Aarnio, said in an e-mail to NRK that this was completely new information for him. "My first reaction is that this would in any case be a violation of the GDPR," he wrote.

The Finnish Nokia group had sold its mobile phone division to Microsoft years ago and focused on the core business as a network equipment supplier. After Microsoft also left the smartphone market a few years later, the naming rights returned to Nokia. The Finnish company then passed them on to the company HMD Global, which now sells smartphones with the brand name Nokia.