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Barnes & Noble's Latest Tablet Is Running Spyware From Shanghai (linuxjournal.com)
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."
If you're concerned about your privacy, you shouldn't be using a smart phone. Period.
You've already got a discount on one, that's why it costs $50.
It's not that people are 'cool with it'.
Much like climate change and illegal government spying, the reason that people don't seem to mind is that only about 0.00001% of users actually experience something they perceive as harmful as a result of pre-installed spyware. It's hard to get people exited about something that they don't perceive as affecting them.
This.
I'm a retired IT guy and, like many of you, I can perform miracles of a semi-religious nature with computing platforms.
I have to provide permission for my computer to flip a bit.
Even so, I know full well that every fucking thing I do is recorded and used without my permission.
When laypersons ask me, "What can be done?"
I say, "Nothing."
I'm not worried about it, though because it actually works both ways.
My motto is:
"For every motherfucker out there with a computer, there's another motherfucker out there with a computer."
It's all good.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.