Hmmm.. I "was" thinking about purchasing a BLU phone...but now I have second thoughts!
http://android.wonderhowto.com/news/thes...pyware-0175014/
http://android.wonderhowto.com/news/thes...pyware-0175014/
Chinese Spyware on phones
- Thread starter JGmazda
- Start date
- Status
The Chinese steals your information, probably to sell you more products.
The NSA steals your information, probably to kill you when you post the anti government posts on Facebook.
The Russians steals your information to send you pictures of Putin riding horses without a shirt on.
The Canadians steals your information so they can mail you "Sorry buddy for stealing your information"
Pick your poison
The NSA steals your information, probably to kill you when you post the anti government posts on Facebook.
The Russians steals your information to send you pictures of Putin riding horses without a shirt on.
The Canadians steals your information so they can mail you "Sorry buddy for stealing your information"
Pick your poison
Did you have some expectation of privacy? Then don't use anything electronic or use a service that uses electronics. Read a book but not from a library. And when you're in public, smile. You're on someone's camera.
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2007
- Messages
- 5,293
You need an app that scans for hidden Device Administrators. Trend Micro offers a free one. Then also a malware scanner. MalwareBytes is free and is pretty good. I use both on my Android device. I have a Moto X which I don't think has a risk of factory origin spy oriented hardware or firmware below the software layer.
The Chinese recently threatened to halt the flow of iPhones over election results. Any cellphone, any device made in China is vulnerable.
I think it would be pretty naive to discount the possibility of spyware on ANY smartphone. However, I personally would not purchase a BLU phone for quality reasons. They simply purchase the cheapest of the cheap Chinese OEM phones (not brands you may have heard of like Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, or Alcatel), and rebadge them. I expect the quality to be quite poor on these. And these phones were never originally meant to be released to the US market, and its perfectly legal in China to to have spyware on Chinese domestic phones, so the chances of it ending up on BLU phones are higher, IMO. That BLU didn't catch this calls into question their competence, IMO.
Even sticking to LG, Samsung, etc is no guarantee the Chinese aren't spying on you as those phones are manufactured in Chinese factories as well. Hopefully they more fully test heir phones and would catch this stuff. However, plenty of other people are collecting your data anyway. Google, and AT&T for example.
Even sticking to LG, Samsung, etc is no guarantee the Chinese aren't spying on you as those phones are manufactured in Chinese factories as well. Hopefully they more fully test heir phones and would catch this stuff. However, plenty of other people are collecting your data anyway. Google, and AT&T for example.
Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
The Chinese recently threatened to halt the flow of iPhones over election results. Any cellphone, any device made in China is vulnerable.
I like the results and I wouldn't miss the I Phone.
The Chinese recently threatened to halt the flow of iPhones over election results. Any cellphone, any device made in China is vulnerable.
I like the results and I wouldn't miss the I Phone.
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
The Chinese recently threatened to halt the flow of iPhones over election results. Any cellphone, any device made in China is vulnerable.
I like the results and I wouldn't miss the I Phone.
Most Chinese can't afford Chinese-made electronics. The Tariffs on Electronics are prohibitive ... an iPhone is about $US 1500 in China.
Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
The Chinese recently threatened to halt the flow of iPhones over election results. Any cellphone, any device made in China is vulnerable.
I like the results and I wouldn't miss the I Phone.
Most Chinese can't afford Chinese-made electronics. The Tariffs on Electronics are prohibitive ... an iPhone is about $US 1500 in China.
Originally Posted By: dlayman
I personally would not purchase a BLU phone for quality reasons. They simply purchase the cheapest of the cheap Chinese OEM phones (not brands you may have heard of like Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, or Alcatel), and rebadge them. I expect the quality to be quite poor on these. And these phones were never originally meant to be released to the US market,
IIRC the company (Bold Like Us) is based in Miami and originally intended the phone brand for Latin American countries. Some of them get very good reviews online, but like you, I am a bit leery when the prices are TOO low.
I personally would not purchase a BLU phone for quality reasons. They simply purchase the cheapest of the cheap Chinese OEM phones (not brands you may have heard of like Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, or Alcatel), and rebadge them. I expect the quality to be quite poor on these. And these phones were never originally meant to be released to the US market,
IIRC the company (Bold Like Us) is based in Miami and originally intended the phone brand for Latin American countries. Some of them get very good reviews online, but like you, I am a bit leery when the prices are TOO low.
Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
Most Chinese can't afford Chinese-made electronics. The Tariffs on Electronics are prohibitive ... an iPhone is about $US 1500 in China.
China puts tariffs on stuff made in China???
Most Chinese can't afford Chinese-made electronics. The Tariffs on Electronics are prohibitive ... an iPhone is about $US 1500 in China.
China puts tariffs on stuff made in China???
Originally Posted By: DBMaster
Originally Posted By: dlayman
I personally would not purchase a BLU phone for quality reasons. They simply purchase the cheapest of the cheap Chinese OEM phones (not brands you may have heard of like Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, or Alcatel), and rebadge them. I expect the quality to be quite poor on these. And these phones were never originally meant to be released to the US market,
IIRC the company (Bold Like Us) is based in Miami and originally intended the phone brand for Latin American countries. Some of them get very good reviews online, but like you, I am a bit leery when the prices are TOO low.
Yes BLU is a Miami-based American company, specializing in rebranding the cheapest of the cheap no-name Chinese phones. I don't know about the Latin American part. Likely Blu was as duped by this as anybody, but they might have expected as much. A lot of products get good reviews because they function when fresh out of the box (like people who write glowing reviews of tires with 100 miles on them). Android is as much to blame as anybody in this. These devices should not have passed licensing. Obviously they must be relying on the "good faith" of the cell phone suppliers, rather than doing actual testing, like too many regulatory bodies do. Or else they just aren't very good at it. People seem to think Samsung, LG, Blackberry, Apple are safe and secure, but I wouldn't bet on any of it.
Originally Posted By: dlayman
I personally would not purchase a BLU phone for quality reasons. They simply purchase the cheapest of the cheap Chinese OEM phones (not brands you may have heard of like Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, or Alcatel), and rebadge them. I expect the quality to be quite poor on these. And these phones were never originally meant to be released to the US market,
IIRC the company (Bold Like Us) is based in Miami and originally intended the phone brand for Latin American countries. Some of them get very good reviews online, but like you, I am a bit leery when the prices are TOO low.
Yes BLU is a Miami-based American company, specializing in rebranding the cheapest of the cheap no-name Chinese phones. I don't know about the Latin American part. Likely Blu was as duped by this as anybody, but they might have expected as much. A lot of products get good reviews because they function when fresh out of the box (like people who write glowing reviews of tires with 100 miles on them). Android is as much to blame as anybody in this. These devices should not have passed licensing. Obviously they must be relying on the "good faith" of the cell phone suppliers, rather than doing actual testing, like too many regulatory bodies do. Or else they just aren't very good at it. People seem to think Samsung, LG, Blackberry, Apple are safe and secure, but I wouldn't bet on any of it.
dlayman, you sound pretty knowledgeable on this topic. Are you in the industry? Makes me glad I didn't go for a BLU phone. I bought a Moto G4 Play two months ago. It replaced my three year old Lumia 521 Windows Phone. I am not a heavy duty smartphone user.
Originally Posted By: DBMaster
dlayman, you sound pretty knowledgeable on this topic. Are you in the industry? Makes me glad I didn't go for a BLU phone. I bought a Moto G4 Play two months ago. It replaced my three year old Lumia 521 Windows Phone. I am not a heavy duty smartphone user.
No, I'm not in the industry, I just follow it a bit as a hobby. Not to rain on your parade but Moto (including G Play) is a Chinese phone, owned and run by Lenovo (Chinese), and Lenovo has been caught in some compromising positions not long ago. Not trying to act superior, I own a ZTE (Chinese), just that I don't think any of the devices can really be counted on to be safe. I would put Moto and ZTE as a slightly safer bet than BLU, and a bit less of a safe bet than Samsung or LG, but none of them can be completely trusted to be secure. There are many more backdoors and vulnerabilities and spyware than what was brought up in this thread.
dlayman, you sound pretty knowledgeable on this topic. Are you in the industry? Makes me glad I didn't go for a BLU phone. I bought a Moto G4 Play two months ago. It replaced my three year old Lumia 521 Windows Phone. I am not a heavy duty smartphone user.
No, I'm not in the industry, I just follow it a bit as a hobby. Not to rain on your parade but Moto (including G Play) is a Chinese phone, owned and run by Lenovo (Chinese), and Lenovo has been caught in some compromising positions not long ago. Not trying to act superior, I own a ZTE (Chinese), just that I don't think any of the devices can really be counted on to be safe. I would put Moto and ZTE as a slightly safer bet than BLU, and a bit less of a safe bet than Samsung or LG, but none of them can be completely trusted to be secure. There are many more backdoors and vulnerabilities and spyware than what was brought up in this thread.
You're not raining on my parade, no worries. I have to guess that there must be cell phones NOT made in China, but I have never owned one. I bought the G4 Play for the price and its full compatibility with my carrier's (T-Mobile) network. It is also a bloatware free Android device. Aside from that, I had no illusions that it would be perfect.
Motorola's mobile phone division changed hands a couple of times in the last decade. I have had two other Moto phones I like really well, but that doesn't mean squat at this point. I'm just not going to spend the money to get a "flagship" device. I feel a lot better about compromise at a $150 price point vs $650-850.
Motorola's mobile phone division changed hands a couple of times in the last decade. I have had two other Moto phones I like really well, but that doesn't mean squat at this point. I'm just not going to spend the money to get a "flagship" device. I feel a lot better about compromise at a $150 price point vs $650-850.
I don't know if there remain any smartphones that aren't made in China, I'm not aware of any. My first smartphone, a BlackBerry Curve, was made in Canada. There was a brief period when Motorola did make them in the US, I believe it was when they were owned by Google, or maybe just before. I think they made the Motorola X and maybe be a few others in the US for a brief period. I share your perspective on this. I also refuse to pay $800 for a flagship phone. They may be somewhat more secure and are more likely to get security patches, but I'm not sure even Android is aware of and understands all the vulnerabilities.
I would never do something like mobile banking on any of these, nor do I do anything that might put my credit card or SSN at risk, but I'm not sure that really safeguards me either.
I would never do something like mobile banking on any of these, nor do I do anything that might put my credit card or SSN at risk, but I'm not sure that really safeguards me either.
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: dlayman
... Moto (including G Play) is a Chinese phone, owned and run by Lenovo (Chinese), and Lenovo has been caught in some compromising positions not long ago...
Exactly. Lenovo was installing spyware on their Ideapad laptops, and possibly other PCs.
Motorola is just a brand name on some electronics to make us think the product is American.
Once upon a time Motorola was a fine American company with innovative technology.
Originally Posted By: dlayman
I don't know if there remain any smartphones that aren't made in China, I'm not aware of any...
This too.
... Moto (including G Play) is a Chinese phone, owned and run by Lenovo (Chinese), and Lenovo has been caught in some compromising positions not long ago...
Exactly. Lenovo was installing spyware on their Ideapad laptops, and possibly other PCs.
Motorola is just a brand name on some electronics to make us think the product is American.
Once upon a time Motorola was a fine American company with innovative technology.
Originally Posted By: dlayman
I don't know if there remain any smartphones that aren't made in China, I'm not aware of any...
This too.
My Samsung S6 and LG G3 were made in Korea, so not all phones are coming out of China. Remember that DoS attack that took out a bunch of websites a few weeks ago? That was caused by firmware in cheap webcams that came from China. I haven't seen anything to indicate this has happened with any brand name electronics, it seems to be all the no-name knockoff products that you can find online. They'll load whatever cheap firmware onto the devices they can find including bugs, spyware and all!
Originally Posted By: dishdude
My Samsung S6 and LG G3 were made in Korea, so not all phones are coming out of China. Remember that DoS attack that took out a bunch of websites a few weeks ago? That was caused by firmware in cheap webcams that came from China. I haven't seen anything to indicate this has happened with any brand name electronics, it seems to be all the no-name knockoff products that you can find online. They'll load whatever cheap firmware onto the devices they can find including bugs, spyware and all!
I wonder about the Samsung S7 and 7 Edge and the LG G5 and V20 which are the current versions of those devices that are currently being manufactured, rather than one or two generations ago. I would be at least a little more confident of Made in Korea, but nonetheless Android vulnerabilities still remain.
My Samsung S6 and LG G3 were made in Korea, so not all phones are coming out of China. Remember that DoS attack that took out a bunch of websites a few weeks ago? That was caused by firmware in cheap webcams that came from China. I haven't seen anything to indicate this has happened with any brand name electronics, it seems to be all the no-name knockoff products that you can find online. They'll load whatever cheap firmware onto the devices they can find including bugs, spyware and all!
I wonder about the Samsung S7 and 7 Edge and the LG G5 and V20 which are the current versions of those devices that are currently being manufactured, rather than one or two generations ago. I would be at least a little more confident of Made in Korea, but nonetheless Android vulnerabilities still remain.
Last edited:
- Status
