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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."
"owners can expect zero privacy or control while using it."
In other words, much like every "web app" ever. Gmail. Twitter. Instagram. Etc.
The people have spoken. They're cool with having zero privacy or control. That ship fucking SAILED.
If you're concerned about your privacy, you shouldn't be using a smart phone. Period.
Barnes & Noble is still trying to sell tablets.
Old people fall. Young people spring. Rich people summer and winter.
You've already got a discount on one, that's why it costs $50.
That's not true, I just searched "cyanogenmod BNTV450" and this link is the first result.
Spyware and adware were once universally considered to be malware but there appears to be some exceptions now... Many ad supported mobile apps are known to leak personal data to Ad networks with no protections on how that data or sold. This should be considered spyware but many people are willing to accept it. While the subject of this article is a more extreme example of the spectrum of spyware, it isn't clear where people draw the line. Without strong legal protections, consumers are at the mercy of device manufacturers that are driven by profit, with little interest in looking after their customers privacy. Manufacturers might be embarrassed when the a caught out with poor security practises or when they are spying on users but that is a pretty weak form of protection.
A scary escalation is the move of this sort of software from the mobile device to traditional computing platforms (laptop and desktop). Windows 10 telemetry could, and should, be considered to be spyware. After MS started displaying ads it became adware as well.
When it is law enforcement or security agencies spying on the public there is much more of a reaction than when a company does it.
has anyone tried CyanogenMod on it?
I haven't. One of the reasons I have stayed away from cyanogen and rooting until now is that when I have looked at what I can find about this subject, I can't shake off the feeling that this is mostly a bunch of script kiddies, who try to sound like they are cool and with it, but are actually rather dim - Beavis and Butthead trying to get you to blindly download and install something in the hope that it won't brick the device you have paid actual money for. My last, cheap phone still cost something like $600, so I will only start playing around with it like that, if I feel really confident in the guidance and the SW; and that means open source software and good quality documentation. And by good quality documentation I don't mean lots of pictures of how you click on menues, but thorough explanations of what to do, why to do it, and what to do if/when things go wrong.Unless you are very familiar with things, the worst experience you can have is to get stuck halfways with no idea what the hell to do next. That simply must not happen.
It has been done: http://blog.the-ebook-reader.c... CyanogenMod is going by CM7 these days, might be why you didn't find it. Might have to give myself one of these for Xmas...
Because you believe Apple doesn't ever look at all the data they collect about you? That they would never share it with anyone?
At least with Android it's your choice. You can root the phone and decide exactly how much you want going where. Now if you want to actually use any services you'll have to share something, but it's up to you what the trade-off is. On iPhone you have no choice, Apple gets all of it no matter what you do.