Smartphone maker Xiaomi is migrating some data on non-Chinese customers away from its servers in Beijing due to performance and privacy considerations.

Data belonging to the privately owned company's non-Chinese users will be moved in several phases to Amazon servers in the United States and data centers in Singapore.

Xiaomi vice president Hugo Barra said that the migration matches in reverse Apple move earlier this year to store Chinese user data with China Telecom. Already a watchdog has found that the Chinese authorities had been snooping on Chinese Apple fanboys thanks to the move.

User privacy is a key issue for Xiaomi which wants overseas expansion. It has already faced accusations from international security researchers and a government agency in Taiwan that it funnels unauthorised user data back to its servers in Beijing. Barra also said the moving data to overseas servers has significantly boosted speed in markets such as Singapore, India and Malaysia. Xiaomi is targeting India and Brazil as its next big markets.