If you buy a phone from Apple it is implied that it will make connections to Apple. To a certain degree off course. However I have not bought a Baidu phone and have not given my consent to be tracked.
What is wrong with you people who nitpick in this thread. It is an invasion of privacy and is being done without my consent. That is the important issue here.
Apple iPhone phones come with Apple iCloud spyware? Google search spyware? Yahoo search spyware? Bing search spyware?
Microsoft Windows Phone phones come with Microsoft spyware?
It's the same stuff. At least China tells people what they do, instead of leaving people with uncertainty and doubt.