As recently told by Amazon to CNET this week, the e-commerce giant has decided to suspend the sales of mobile devices made by Blu on its official website. The reason for the removal reportedly has something to do with a potential security issue. This decision from Amazon came after Kryptowire, a security firm, showed last week how Blu devices possess software that had the ability to gather potentially sensitive or private information, and transmit them to servers located in China, without the knowledge and permission of the owners of the handsets.
Blu had claimed that the software it was using for its devices was legitimate, and that there was no data collecting of any kind happening in its phones. For a bit of background, the software was developed by Shanghai Adups Tech, a software firm based in China. Plus, according to Blu, it had taken several measures to ensure that owners of any of its device are protected against any privacy or security breach.
Privacy and security are very relevant matters in the world of mobile right now. For several months, we have been bombarded with news of Russian hacks and their involvement in last year’s presidential elections. And then less than a couple of months ago, a malware called CopyCat was reported to have infected 14 million mobile devices around the world running on Google’s Android mobile operating system.
It is pretty understandably why Amazon is not taking any chances. In an official statement, the company had announced that for reasons related maintaining security and privacy, it is making all Blu smartphone devices unavailable for purchase from its official website, that is until the issue is put to rest. Amazon then suggested to its customers that if they had any related concerns, it might be best to directly contact Blu’s customer service.
This is kind of a shame because Blu actually had built some momentum on Amazon. Sure, it is not as big as Samsung or Apple, but on Amazon, but its budget friendly devices were selling really well, especially the Blu R1 HD (priced at only $60), which happened to be the best selling phone on Amazon.
Blu was also one of the big contributors of devices on Amazon’s Prime Exclusive Phones program, which sold handsets with quite generous discounts to the program’s members, as long as they do not mind viewing ads on their phone’s lock screen. To date, Blu’s devices are no longer available on the Prime Exclusive web page.
from
https://www.wirefly.com/blog/news/blu-devices-have-been-made-unavailable-amazon-s-website