[jser]

Many examples, e.g. https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/31/16072786/amazon-blu-suspe.... “In November 2016, security firm Kryptowire detected pre-loaded remote surveillance software on BLU phones sold online through Amazon and Best Buy. In August 2017, Amazon pulled BLU Products from its website over security vulnerabilities that resulted in BLU consumer user data being covertly sent to China.”

[usui]

This.. doesn’t answer my question still. Even if data goes to China, how that data is used, what it is, and by what mechanism is what determines whether it’s a threat or not. Why do we continue to use boogiemen when it comes to explaining threats? Why don’t we apply this kind of scaremongering to any data exfiltration to every shady company ever?

Also in your specific reference:

> “Now almost a year later, the devices are still behaving in the same exact way, with standard and basic data collection that pose no security or privacy risk. There has been absolutely no new behavior or change in any of our devices to trigger any concern. We expect Amazon to understand this, and quickly reinstate our devices for sale.”

So, clearly I’m not the only one who wants clear, explanatory, descriptive answers to these threat models.

[HNDV]

I find it interesting how democrats fell into a pit that I used to think was something only Trump and his ilk followed.

The two parties really are the same at the core. One may pretend to be conservative and the other screech in woke language but they always converge on the parts that actually matter like geopolitics.

When Trump duked it out against China, democrats pretended to be offended. Now, democrats are in power, and they're pushing even harder to ban China.

The US is such a sham democracy.

You will not hear anything from the brainwashed apart from "things coming from China are bad because it's China !111!" when in reality those bans exist because American companies simply are not competitive and are looking for America to become a captive market for American corpos. Can't have people selling phones almost-as-good-as-iPhones for less than iPhones.

[thayne]

Imagine if other countries applied the same policy to US-based companies, because some US companies covertly sent data to the US.

[rightbyte]

Sounds awesome. Let's start right now. Google, Facebook and Amazon are probably the worst offenders.

There is already some GDPR related pushback but it is not nearly enough.