Budget Android Phones Are Secretly Sending Users’ Text Messages to China

Colin Lecher:

Software installed on some Android phones secretly monitored users, and even sent keyword-searchable, full text message archives to a Chinese server every 72 hours, according to research from security firm Kryptowire (…)

Adups claims to have software running on more than 700 million, mostly low-end devices, and says it has partnered with some major manufacturers like Huawei and ZTE, but the scope of the installed software is also unclear. (Huawei and ZTE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) At least one US manufacturer, BLU Products, was affected, with 120,000 phones reportedly running the tracking software.

How the hell did any manufacturer agree to this?!?