For this reason, avoid purchasing inexpensive phones that have bloatware, even if they are free
We've known for a long time that if a product is free it's because "the product is you," because when you use said service or app, your personal data and usage data (including photos) are almost certainly being exchanged between advertisers and other companies. or those who profit from them.
But what happens when a product isn’t free but incredibly cheap? Well, as the Wall Street Journal and NGO Privacy International recently reported, cheap products can be expensive, at the cost of losing our privacy.
This is the case that Privacy International recently reported after one of its members was given a cell phone in the Philippines. The PI member had traveled to the Republic of the Philippines for a meeting with the organization they work with. Shortly after arriving in the islands, his cell phone broke, so the first thing he did was buy a Filipino-branded cell phone. The price? $19.
Upon returning from his trip, the PI team decided to take a closer look at such a smartphone, which was very cheap. The mobile phone, the MYA 2 model from the Philippine brand MyPhone, is certified as an “Android Partner,” meaning it has been tested for security and performance.
When they inspected the mobile phone in depth, the first thing they found were the usual Google apps, those that come with any Android phone (calculator, clock, Google services...) but also some of their own apps that come pre-installed on the mobile. These apps, known as bloatware, should not be dangerous, although they tend to be a nuisance (especially when they cannot be uninstalled due to having a higher permission than the system).
However, by analyzing the behavior and permissions of these apps, the PI team discovered that in addition to what they are supposed to do, the aforementioned bloatware apps do much more, such as:
- Transmit user's imei, username, city, province, occupation and gender through an insecure protocol (easily intercepted)
- Access to user photos and files. Permissions previously granted in an app with a higher authorization level than the system and user, i.e., they cannot be modified.
- Access to location and network information: This means they will know where you are at all times, even if you don't want them to.
- Access to SMS.
The bottom line is that bloatware applications leave a cheap mobile phone exposed to countless very serious problems related to our privacy. Therefore, we advise you, if you care about your privacy, to stay away from buying those cheap phones, especially Chinese ones, because, as we mentioned in the introduction, in the end you will be the product itself.