Bloatware in Aftermarket Auto Parts
This story is interesting: One Civic owner purchased a cheap aftermarket head unit off Amazon, and decided to have Claude work its magic on it, like it would a smart TV. What was reportedly discovered isn’t surprising, but is worth knowing about. Among the pre-installed bloatware—or spyware, if you’re being less charitable—was a voice assistant equipped with WebView, an Android system component that lets apps display content off the web. This apparently always used about a third of processing power, even while idle, which isn’t great. There were also Baidu location services, a call recorder (!), a DAB radio client that is pretty much useless in the U.S., and Adobe Acrobat, presumably so yo
- Vendor
- Product
- Android
- Exposure class
- Mobile OS
Why it ranks 19 (Routine)
- Product class: mobile OS
- Widely deployed vendor product (Google)
- Reporting
- Recency: items published within 24 hours gain 15, within 72 hours 6, within 7 days 2.
Links
- Schneier on Security (schneier.com)