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Baidu Browser Acts Like a Mildly Tempered Infostealer Virus
An anonymous reader writes: The Baidu Web browser for Windows and Android exhibits behavior that could easily be categorized by a security researcher as an infostealer virus because the browser collects information on its users, and then sends it to Baidu's home servers.
Both versions collected waaaaay to much information that has nothing to do with analytics, like hard drive models, CPU serials, and personal browsing history. The browser collected and sent this information on startup, when the user started typing content in his address bar, and on any page view. Some of this was sent via unencrypted connections. Additionally, the browser update did not use code signatures, meaning you could man-in-the-middle the connection and send anything you'd like to the browser, from Pokemon games to banking trojans, and have it installed locally.
Both versions collected waaaaay to much information that has nothing to do with analytics, like hard drive models, CPU serials, and personal browsing history. The browser collected and sent this information on startup, when the user started typing content in his address bar, and on any page view. Some of this was sent via unencrypted connections. Additionally, the browser update did not use code signatures, meaning you could man-in-the-middle the connection and send anything you'd like to the browser, from Pokemon games to banking trojans, and have it installed locally.
All 'telemetry' is SPYING.
What else would you expect?
Both versions collected waaaaay to much information that has nothing to do with analytics...
This is a meaningless statement, mostly because "analytics" is always a just a weasel-word for "spying". The only acceptable amount is zero.
Baidu is the Chinese "Google", the biggest Chinese search engine provider. According to Alexa, it's one of the five most visited web sites in the world. Would you like fries with your ignorance?
As a Chinese "Google," it also 100% caves into any and all government requests for censorship, page removal, data, whatever. You know there's a reason why there is no google.cn, right? And why half the time Google and all its services are blocked (not sure of the current state--it tends to go back and forth) in China.
I think the most correct action to take is to not install Windows 10.
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time