I have a medium-tier phone model from a Florida based company called Blu. They basically buy off brand phones from China, and sell them at a bargain. The thing is, the manufacturers in China think it is a-ok to install spyware in the root of the phone in the form of a "System Update" and "Android Sync" app. Turns out, various sources have reported in the last few years that these are data collecting apps, and calls, call logs, texts, app usage data, pictures, microphone recordings and other information can, and have been sent to anonymous 3rd party Chinese servers. They don't seem to be after people's bank information thankfully, but seem to be more interested in personal information about you for some unknown reason. Do they sell it to advertisers? Are they just watching us like some sort of TV show? I dunno, but it's a huge invasion of privacy.
I noticed about a year ago, my phone had this weird update thing that would not go away. It looked fake as fuck, and not reputable at all. I did not run it. It seemed really sketchy, and after getting malwarebytes, and doing some research, I first discovered that this was happening on phones like mine. I was able to disable the app, and all was good until about a week ago when Malwarebytes noticed two PUPs called "Fota Provider", and "Fota Updater". MB cannot remove these. Now.. when a phone manufacture normally does a firmware update, or when Android updates its OS, it is usually, obviously, through a legit site, or app. This just reeks of malware, and further searching confirms this.
These come in many forms, and have affected a few thousand phones. Just google it, there are lots of posts online about this from the last few years. There are ways to remove, and disable it, but until fairly recently, one had to root their phones to completely get rid of this, cause like a hydra, it would slowly come back. I'm in the process now, and I gotta say, this is hugely annoying. I don't recommend anyone ever buy anything from this company, or companies like this that sell cheap, off brand chinese shit. I feel dumb, as a consumer, for trusting this company.
Yeah kids, don't by cheap phones from companies that aren't well known. Has anyone else had to deal with anything like this?