Barnes & Noble's Latest Tablet Is Running Spyware From Shanghai (linuxjournal.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday December 20, 2016 @12:45PM from the buyer-beware dept.

Long-time Slashdot reader emil writes about how ADUPS, an Android "firmware provisioning" company specializing in both big data collection of Android usage and hostile app installation and/or firmware control, has been found pre-loaded on Barnes and Noble's new $50 tablet: ADUPS was recently responsible for data theft on BLU phones and an unsafe version of the ADUPS agent is pre-loaded on the Barnes and Noble BNTV450. ADUPS' press releases claim that Version 5.5 of their agent is safe, but the BNTV450 is running 5.2. The agent is capable of extracting contacts, listing installed apps, and installing new apps with elevated privilege. Azzedine Benameur, director of research at Kryptowire, claims that "owners can expect zero privacy or control while using it."

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Re:erase and cyanogen, or? by koick · 2016-12-20 13:19 · Score: 1, Informative

Got one of these for my mom (they kick ass compared to Amazon's Fire), but now potentially regretting it. Been keeping an eye out for rooting this bad boy and installing CM, but google searches for "root BNTV450" or "cyanogenmod BNTV450", come up with nothing.