US government-funded phones come pre-installed with unremovable malware
31–37 of 37 posts
Re: US government-funded phones come pre-installed with unremovable malware
#32Re: US government-funded phones come pre-installed with unremovable malware
#33Most corporate issued phones and computers come with lots of pre installed malware too. Apple bakes this into MacOS too (MDM).
A computer program knowingly installed by the owner of the device, functioning to the expected specifications of the owner of the device, is just called software.
For me, whether it respects users privacy is where I’d draw the line, but I see your point.
Re: US government-funded phones come pre-installed with unremovable malware
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
A computer program knowingly installed by the owner of the device, functioning to the expected specifications of the owner of the device, is just called software.
For me, whether it respects users privacy is where I’d draw the line, but I see your point.
Defining low privacy software as malware is to redefine malware. I also don’t really understand the issue with MDM at work. Aside from the fact that MDM is not necessarily a privacy infringing feature (depending on how you configure it), why would expect privacy on a work device? You should be conducting your personal business on your own devices (and not just because of MDM).
Re: US government-funded phones come pre-installed with unremovable malware
#35Am I just super jet lagged, or does Malwarebytes seem to avoid talking about what this “malware” actually does? Is it just click fraud like the malware names suggest? That would hardly hurt the users. Some might even think that click fraud fucking over online advertising platforms is a good thing...
Click fraud doesn't fuck over online advertising platforms, if it goes undetected it fucks over advertisers who use the platform. If it's detected, no one pays for it.
> Click fraud doesn't fuck over online advertising platforms, if it goes undetected it fucks over advertisers who use the platform.
Sounds like the same thing to me!
Re: US government-funded phones come pre-installed with unremovable malware
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
For me, whether it respects users privacy is where I’d draw the line, but I see your point.
Defining low privacy software as malware is to redefine malware. I also don’t really understand the issue with MDM at work. Aside from the fact that MDM is not necessarily a privacy infringing feature (depending on how you configure it), why would expect privacy on a work device? You should be conducting your personal business on your own devices (and not just because of MDM).
I don't know how you feel about somebody else secretly watching your screen without telling you, but I think that's something I would not be ok with, even if I don't conduct personal business on the device.
Apart from that, there are plenty of companies requiring you to install their MDM profile on your personal device if you want to read corporate emails on it (guess how I know).
Re: US government-funded phones come pre-installed with unremovable malware
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Click fraud doesn't fuck over online advertising platforms, if it goes undetected it fucks over advertisers who use the platform. If it's detected, no one pays for it.
> Click fraud doesn't fuck over online advertising platforms, if it goes undetected it fucks over advertisers who use the platform. Sounds like the same thing to me!
On the off chance you're interested in the distinction... Uncaught click fraud is paid for by advertisers (including small businesses and startups who can't easily absorb that cost). The platform (Google Ads for instance) pays nothing. In fact they make a profit.
It only hurts them if there is enough of it that it pushes advertisers elsewhere, which is why so much of it is caught (in which case no one pays for it).