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Amazon Suspends Sales of Blu Android Phones Due To Privacy Concerns (cnet.com)
CNET reports: Amazon just put budget phone maker Blu in the penalty box. The online retailing giant told CNET that it was suspending sales of phones from Blu, known for making ultra-cheap Android handsets, due to a "potential security issue." The move comes after security firm Kryptowire demonstrated last week how software in Blu's phones collected data and sent it to servers in China without alerting people. Blu defended the software, created by a Chinese company called Shanghai Adups Technology, and denied any wrongdoing. A company spokeswoman said at the time it "has several policies in place which take customer privacy and security seriously." She added there had been no breaches. Blu said it was in a process of review to reinstate the phones at Amazon.
First thing I do with a new phone, I wipe it and install LineageOS. Somebody else builds the ROM and I don't have the time or resources to personally-inspect the source code, so it's mostly a more-trusted quantity; and everybody sees it and sees the build process, so there are at least a dozen primary developers, a couple hundred bored hobbyists, and the occasional security researcher looking at the built ROM and the source code. Between the diff against Android and the massive number of eyes on Android's source trees, a lot of people have to be involved in a conspiracy to mess with my phone for there to be anything intentionally-malicious in there.
I like OnePlus, but I'm not going to run their OS just so it can repeatedly try to sell themes to me. If there was a Lineage ChromiumOS, I'd put that on my Chromebook.
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"All user data is obtained without their permission, sure, but it's sent securely via encrypted transmission methods. Further, I assure all of our customers that the Chinese Communist Party servers that keep and analyze this data are under the highest security standards and the CCP does not share its data or findings with outside parties. So there is nothing to worry about. Our phones are doing exactly what our masters in the CCP are requiring them to do and doing so in a very secure manner."
News at 11. Amazon is going to suspend sales of Amazon Echo; followed by suspending their entire online shopping site due to "potential" security issues. Almost everything has potential security issues (other than a block of concrete 10 feet under), but as a customer, it's my right to make that trade-off.
As a customer it is your right to make that trade-off. You don't have the right to demand that Amazon be the one to sell it to you though.
It's your right to buy clam chowder but McDonalds doesn't have to sell it. It's your right to drive a Toyota Corolla, but your Honda dealership doesn't have to stock them. You're perfectly in your right to buy and wear a Rolex, but walmart doesn't have to have one waiting for you to buy.
Amazon has the right to choose not to sell BLU phones just as McDonalds has the right to not sell Clam Chowder.
I'm sure they don't want to be associated with spyware, or have negative customer satisfaction from people that buy those phones and incorrectly blame Amazon for selling them a spyware ridden phone. You may not blame Amazon but plenty of less tech savvy people would.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
BLU Phones are Easily Rootable, and until the R1 HD, did NOT have locked bootloaders that prevented the installation of TWRP Recovery. However, Because they used MediaTek Chipsets instead of QualComm, they were GSM Exclusive. (Meaning: No CDMA because QualComm has a Patent on it in the US.)
That means ATT and T-Mobile only (and their Associated MVNO carriers.) No Verizon, and no Sprint. CDMA is very pervasive in the US.
Most LineageOS (formerly Cyanogen Mod) Programmers are from the US, so because of that MediaTek based Phones are a Tiny, Tiny, Tiny Minority. Wal-Mart Stopped carrying BLU Phones in the US because People would buy them, find out they were on a CDMA Carrier, (Sprint, Verizon) and then Wal-Mart would be swamped with Returns.)
BLU started locking the Bootloaders with the R1 HD due to the Lock Screen ads. People removed the ads, and denying them ad revenue seemed like theft to BLU.
There are gradations in privacy. The fact that I'm ok with having some small portion of my data used by corporations whose services I utilize does not mean that I'm ok with massive violation of privacy without any notice at all by some other corporation.
What the Blu phone does is way over the line. They are not only secretly sending data to China, they have "a command-and-control channel that can execute code on a user’s phone as a system user."
This is not merely "spyware"-- this is actual spying, by a foreign power.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/researchers-find-phones-secretly-sending-data-china/