Amazon suspends sales of BLU phones due to privacy concerns

[The Sloth]

BLU caught putting services that sends user data to Chinese servers   

 

"At $60, the Blu R1 HD is the top-selling phone on Amazon. Last November, researchers caught it secretly sending private data to China.

Shanghai Adups Technology, the group behind the spying software on the Blu R1 HD, called it a mistake. But analysts at Kryptowire found the software provider is still making the same "mistake" on other phones." 

 

after they got caught they fixed it 

 

"At the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday, researchers from Kryptowire, a security firm, revealed that Adups' software is still sending a device's data to the company's server in Shanghai without alerting people. But now, it's being more secretive about it.

"They replaced them with nicer versions," Ryan Johnson, a research engineer and co-founder at Kryptowire, said. "I have captured the network traffic of them using the command and control channel when they did it."

An Adups spokeswoman said that the company had resolved the issues in 2016 and that the issues "are not existing anymore."" 

 

now Amazon is suspending them 

 

amazon said 

 

"Because security and privacy of our customers is of the utmost importance, all BLU phone models have been made unavailable for purchase on Amazon.com until the issue is resolved," Amazon said in a statement.

 

 

"The online retailing giant told CNET that it was suspending sales of phones from Blu, known for making ultra-cheap 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 R1 HD no longer listed 

 

"Blu was one of the key participants in Amazon's "Prime Exclusive Phones" program, which offered steep discounts on phones to its members in exchange for ads on their lockscreen. Blu is no longer listed on the page."

 

TLDR- BLU got caught putting a backdoor on its smartphone that sends data to Chinese servers, when they got caught they stated it was a "mistake"and defended the software that made the back door so, Amazon suspended them. 

 

is privacy worth paying extra for? BLU phones are too good to be true, now we know why. 

 

-https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-suspends-sales-of-blu-phones-due-to-privacy-concerns/

 

-https://www.cnet.com/news/these-cheap-phones-are-costing-you-your-privacy/

[givingtnt]

rip

[vanished]

How long was it that the last "cheap chinese android phones spy on you" story broke?  Pretty sure it was < 1 year, and they're at it again already lol 

[aisle9]

"Who could've seen that coming?" said the blind dude.

 

Their business practices are almost as slimy as the back of their low-end phones.

[Damascus]

There is a reason new guys call you "Wan show guy"

[aisle9]

3 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

How long was it that the last "cheap chinese android phones spy on you" story broke?  Pretty sure it was < 1 year, and they're at it again already lol 

Hey, they're selling you a $200 phone for $60. Gotta make that back somehow, right? lol

[LehransMedallion]

5 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

"Who could've seen that coming?" said the blind dude.

 

Their business practices are almost as slimy as the back of their low-end phones.

I'm (legally) blind and I saw it coming. 

 

Amazon really should have suspended them after the news broke the first time. This type of behavior is unacceptable for a manufacturer. 

[TrigrH]

13 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

they're at it again already lol 

by the looks of things they didn't stop.

[BubblyCharizard]

26 minutes ago, TBA said:

Amazon really should have suspended them after the news broke the first time. This type of behavior is unacceptable for a manufacturer. 

so people should stop using windows 10? and apple IOS? both of which tell you they are sending data to the cloud

[LehransMedallion]

11 minutes ago, BubblyCharizard said:

so people should stop using windows 10? and apple IOS? both of which tell you they are sending data to the cloud

False equivalence. Windows and iOS both tell you about the type of data they collect and send.

 

Telemetry != malware.

 

This case is about BLU phones shipping with malware.

 

And if you honestly believe Windows 10 is the only version to have telemetry, you are wrong.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Phone sends some data to China and everyone loses their minds. 

Phone sends all your data to companies in the US (where it gets scooped up by intelligence services which are just as nefarious) and nobody bats an eye.

[TidaLWaveZ]

9 hours ago, Captain Chaos said:

Phone sends some data to China and everyone loses their minds. 

Phone sends all your data to companies in the US (where it gets scooped up by intelligence services which are just as nefarious) and nobody bats an eye.

Nah, anyone who believes anything like this is wearing a tin foil hat. I know that now that everyone has told me.

 

There's really no corruption or conspiracy going on within any major corporations, especially all of those who were involved in that fake government program PRISM.  Anything we hear like this is purely fantasy and part of someones agenda to discredit the government and corporate America. Google Home and Amazon Echo were only made so that Google and Amazon could profit from the hardware sales and nothing more.

 

Honestly the real enemy is Russia considering an extremely large portion of their population consists of prodigious hackers that are literally all intelligent enough to brute force hack into any US computer system within minutes, including devices that don't even have network adapters!

[linkboy]

This is a shame as their phones filled a good market. Sure, they're not the greatest spec wise, but for a lot of people, they don't care. They just want a phone that works at a decent price.

 

I work electronics at Wal-Mart and the amount of low budget Straight Talk phones we sell in insane. Most people don't need a phone like a Pixel, S8 or an iPhone 7. They just want a phone that works.

 

Take my parents for example, they're still using Note 3's and are perfectly happy with them (even though I'm trying to get them to upgrade). I would have loved to have gotten them a BLU phone, as they would have fit their needs perfectly.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

1 hour ago, linkboy said:

(even though I'm trying to get them to upgrade)

The Note3 is fine still.  2.3GHz quad core or 4x1.9 and 4x1.3GHz octa-core, enough internal storage and room for a Micro-SD, good resolution, etc etc. 

The only issue (assuming the batteries are still okay) is the lack of updates, security or otherwise.  If that's why you want to get them to upgrade, keep in mind that several versions of the Note 3 are still supported on LineageOS.  You'll need to make sure they have those versions though. 

Judging by the current version number (14.1), I suspect that it's a Nougat ROM.  So they can be perfectly secure even with those older phones.

[linkboy]

20 minutes ago, Captain Chaos said:

The Note3 is fine still.  2.3GHz quad core or 4x1.9 and 4x1.3GHz octa-core, enough internal storage and room for a Micro-SD, good resolution, etc etc. 

The only issue (assuming the batteries are still okay) is the lack of updates, security or otherwise.  If that's why you want to get them to upgrade, keep in mind that several versions of the Note 3 are still supported on LineageOS.  You'll need to make sure they have those versions though. 

Judging by the current version number (14.1), I suspect that it's a Nougat ROM.  So they can be perfectly secure even with those older phones.

It's not hardware specs, it's the fact that the phones are having hardware issues, but my parents are being to stubborn to upgrade. Half the time, they can hardly hear me because the speakers cut out. 

[Zodiark1593]

1 minute ago, linkboy said:

It's not hardware specs, it's the fact that the phones are having hardware issues, but my parents are being to stubborn to upgrade. Half the time, they can hardly hear me because the speakers cut out. 

A Blu phone would be a downgrade.