Tl;dr
I have been receiving emails for six months now from Huawei, insisting that I upload my Google Play applications on their store. I answered them that I am not interested, I asked them to remove me from their spam list, but the emails still continue to come in. In one email they formulated something that looks like they are doing me a favor!
Timeline
2019 – Autumn – first emails from them come in, but I deleted them – I did not know what will happen
2019 – September – email from S.S. I start saving the emails, to use them in court of law, if needed
2019 – December – I.B. contacts me on my Facebook page. I answer him that I am not interested in their offer
2020 – March – V.A contacts me. I ask him to stop contacting me. He’s answer is amazing!
2020 – April 1 – C.C contacts me
2020 – April 14 – C.C contacts me
I did not know what was going on
I started receiving the emails from Huawei somewhere in the Autumn of 2019. I had no idea about the quarrel between Trump and China, I only interpreted the email as a regular SPAM: “Come join out great and wonderful store, bla bla bla”.
You can see below the email looks like a generic template, sent to all people in some mailing list they got probably from Google Play.
Click to see the email
From: S.S. <redacted@huawei.com>
Cc: V.D <redacted@huawei.com>; C.M. <redacted@huawei.com>
Sent: Monday, September 16, 2019, 12:04:22 PM GMT+3
Subject: Invitation integration in Huawei App Gallery
Good day,
In the last two years, Huawei has delivered over 350 million phones, half of which on the western markets.
All Huawei phones, have preinstalled the app AppStore “App Gallery”, and on a global level there are 370 million registered users active monthly.
I have noticed that your Android application is not yes published in the AppGallery.
In order to guarantee an easy usage of your application for our users, Huawei commits to offering you full support, to facilitate the publishing of your application in the AppGallery.
As such, we would like to invite you to freely join our community of developers of 919.000, in our portal for Huawei developers.
We are at your disposal for details and initiation of endeavor at the contact details below.
Huawei is an independent company, private, supplier of infrastructure on a global level of information and communication technology (ICT)and of smart devices.
In Romania, Huawei has over 2.100 employees, in cities like Bucharest and Timisoara, having specialists in various domains like retail, financial services for technology sector […]
We ask you to please do not hesitate to answer this email, or contact us using the contact details below.
Thank you,
S.S
Huawei Device Romania | 201 Barbu Vacarescu, Bucharest
P: +40 758.016.333 E: sabina.stirb@huawei.com W: www.consumer.huawei.com/ro/
[Translation from Romanian was kept with as much fidelity as possible, including mistakes from original text, or clumsy/unnatural wording]
Unfortunately, I did not know they would keep sending me unsolicited emails, so I deleted some of them.
I hoped they would stop
Later that year it got weird when I got Linked in invitations from them, and a message on my Facebook page. This was getting out of hand already.
I have decided to answer them, telling them that I am not interested in their offer.
I hoped they would stop if answered them.
Click to see Facebook transcript
Hello Adrian,
Sorry for the message, probably inopportune, I will make it short.
I work for Huawei, we work of with progress on our own Android application store (AppGallery) and we would wish to also have your applications in the store on the education side.
The store is very similar to Google Play.
Are you open towards a discussion with us?
Thank you!
[Translation from Romanian was kept with as much fidelity as possible, including mistakes from original text, or clumsy/unnatural wording]
[My answer is short and clear:]
Hello I., I am not interested.
Not the answer they wanted
As it seems, my answer my not the one they wanted. So they continued.
On march I received another unsolicited email from them, even though I clearly stated I am not interested in their offer.
Click to see the email
From: V.A. <redacted@huawei.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 5, 2020, 01:06:45 PM GMT+2
Subject: Addition of „DEX pentru Android – și offline” in Huawei AppGallery
Hello Adrian ,
My name is V.A and I contact you on behalf of Huawei Romania.
Since the beginning of the year we have started bringing the most popular Romanian application to the Huawei AppGallery platform. Up until now , very many Romania applications are already available on the Huawei AppGallery platform like: Cinemagia/Biziday/Bitdefender/MyOrange Romania/My Telekom/Orange TV/Telekom TV/ Banca Transilvania/George Romania…etc.
Because your application “DEX pentru Android – și offline” is in Top 100 applications used in Romania we wish to establish a conecction with the developer/with you so that we facilitatate integration with our devices and for you to list the application on the Huawei AppGallery platform. As far as it concerns the number of Huawei in Romania, I leave you a few details below. [an image is inserted in the email]
In this moment it would help us a contact from the developing team/management for the android application “DEX pentru Android – și offline”.
On the next step we would like to discuss with your team for creating a Huawei ID account on the Huawei developer platform as well as publishing the existing application (does not require other adaptations)
We can see us or have a phone discussion in order to offer you more details about the platform.
I await eagerly your answer.
Best regards [in English, not translated],
V.A.
Huawei Consumer RO | http://www.huawei.com/ro
Mobile: +40 746 246 067| vlad.albu@huawei.com
Barbu Văcărescu 201, District 2, 020276, Bucharest, RO
[Translation from Romania was kept with as much fidelity as possible, including mistakes from original text, or clumsy/unnatural wording]
Introducing the law
I decided to go to the law, but before that I was requested by the rules that I mediate with them.
I answered them:
- saying they have countlessly contacted me without my permission
- underlying I have already told them I am not interested in their offer
I have asked them to:
- delete my contact details from their database
- never again send me a message on email, Facebook, Linkedin, etc
I told them that if they continue to harass me, I will go to the law.
Click to see the email
Hello V.,
I have addressed the National Authority for Surveilling the Processing of Personal/Private Data and they have let me know that before they can enter the situation, am must address to you first.
Message for you and Huawei:
You have contacted me countless times through email, without my permission.
I have also answered on Facebook that I am not interested.
I ask you to
- erase my contact data from your database
- never again send me a message on email, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.
This email will be used as evidence in case you continue the harassment.
Adieu.
Their answer
I hoped my answer would make them afraid of the law, and stop harassing me. Their answer to mine amazed me.
The person from Huawei says the email made me feel “harassed” (his quotes), not the people sending them.
He says they do not have a database of my email – they have the email from Google Play.
He says he did not contact me to sell or request information, but for me to keep my applications available to users. (I guess they were doing me a favor, you see)
He says he will communicate my request to his colleagues.
Click to see the email
From: V.A. <redacted@huawei.com>
Sent: Friday, March 6, 2020, 09:49:52 AM GMT+2
Subject: RE: Addition of „DEX pentru Android – și offline” in Huawei AppGallery
Hello Adrian,
I apologize if this email made you feel „harassed”.
Concerning your email address, it is not a part of our database but it’s publicly available here [Google Play link],, available to any person who can access this web page.
So that it’s all clear, we did not contact you to sell / request access to information, but for you to keep the availability of the application towards the users.
I will communicate your request also to the colleagues.
Best regards [in English, not translated],
V.A.
Huawei Consumer RO | http://www.huawei.com/ro
Mobile: +40 746 246 067| vlad.albu@huawei.com
Barbu Văcărescu 201, District 2, 020276, Bucharest, RO
[Translation from Romania was kept with as much fidelity as possible, including mistakes from original text, or clumsy/unnatural wording]
I did not like his answer, it seemed to me
- very biased
- like that guy had no clue/ or intentionally pretended to now know what SPAM is
But I hoped that finally, they would leave me alone.
And they did.
For one month.
Continuing the harassment
On the 1st of April 2020 I received another email. Again, another template, requesting me that I take my time and join them in a meeting!
What the hell is going on?
Click to see the email
From: C.C <redacted@huawei.com>
Cc: C.C <redacted@huawei.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 1, 2020, 03:11:21 PM GMT+3
Subject: Huawei App Galery, publication of DEX
Hello Adrian,
I hope this message find you as good as possible in this difficult period.
My name is C.C. and I contact you on behalf of Huawei Romania the mobile services division related to the applications you develop (DEX, Istoria Românilor) destined for mobile phones.
We congratulate you for the applications developed by you which we consider very useful for our users. As well, we have followed your professional path and are very impressed by it.
In the frame of the project I handle we wish to bring important applications in the Huawei ecosystem, having access to the newest mobile phones along with App Galery.
The publication process of an application in the frame of App Galery is a very easy one and does not necessitate adaptation for posting.
In order to be able to explain you the steps required to be traversed in order to publish the application in the App Galery, I have the request for us to scheudule a conversation of 20-30 minutes depending on your availability, following which I will transmit you and email with details.
During this week, I could Thursday 2.04.2020 from 10:00 or Friday 3.04.2020 at 16:00.
Good thoughts,
C.C.
Huawei Consumer RO | http://www.huawei.com/ro
Mobile: 0723.561.802| catalin.cheltuianu@huawei.com
Barbu Văcărescu 201, District 2, 020276, Bucharest, RO
[Translation from Romania was kept with as much fidelity as possible, including mistakes from original text, or clumsy/unrealistic wording]
The law
This time I gathered all the evidence, and went directly to the law. The law recorded my request, and is in process of figuring out what is going on.
And again
On 14th of April, I got another email from them.
Are you kidding me?
Click to see the email
From: C.C. <redacted@huawei.com>
Cc: C.C. <redacted@huawei.com>; C.M. <redacted@huawei.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2020, 12:12:21 PM GMT+3
Subject: Invitation listing Dex, Huawei App Gallery
Hello Adrian,
I hope this message find you involved in projects as interesting as possible.
I write you in connection with our invitation to publish the application “ DEX” in App Gallery and I wanted to ask you if we can come in the support of the process?
During this year we expect a number of 300,000 mobile phones with HMS, and for 2021 this to increase at 1,000,000, which could bring an enhanced number of user of “DEX” application.
As well, depending on your availability, we can set a phone discussion to detail the whole process.
I wait eagerly an answer from your side,
C.C.
Huawei Consumer RO | http://www.huawei.com/ro
Mobile:0723.561.802 | catalin.cheltuianu@huawei.com
Barbu Văcărescu 201, District 2, 020276, Bucharest, RO
[Translation from Romania was kept with as much fidelity as possible, including mistakes from original text, or clumsy/unnatural wording]Conclusion
At this time, I feel like they are above the law, and above common sense.
Is my email a garbage can where they can send automated emails whenever they want?
Asking them to stop it really does not mean anything to them?
How long do they plan to do this? Will the law stop them?
I decided to write this article to expose their practices, and also to find out if there are other people like me, who are bombarded with unsolicited email/SPAM from Huawei.
Please let me know if you are in the same situation as I am – we can build a stronger case against them in the court of law.
Update 1
Below is the Answer received from the law – Autoritatea Națională de Supraveghere a Prelucrării Datelor cu Caracter Personal.
Following your request from 05.03.2020, a mention was included in the file used by the employees (containing the name and the link to the public sources from where your data was collected) in order not to be contacted, with an internal information on e-mail. Mr. Cheltuianu Cătălin, a subsequent employee, neglected the existence of internal information on this subject, for which you were contacted again on April 1 and 14, 2020. Huawei Technologies S.R.L. terminated the employment relationship with the respective employee on April 23, 2020.
To understand the chronology, this article was published on April 15th.
Respectively
Since Huawei Technologies S.R.L. stated that in this case it fulfills the capacity of authorized person of Aspiegel Limited based in Ireland, at the instructions of which various people contact to propose a business partnership as developers of applications to be included in the „AppGallery”, our institution will forward the documents relating to your complaint and the investigation to the personal data protection authority of Ireland, in accordance with the cooperation and coherence mechanisms provided by the RGPD.
Update 2
I now receive regular SPAM from developer@huawei.com. How often? Weekly!
