Chinese mini PC gets caught shipping with factory-installed spyware

Somewhat related but Linus Tech Tips did recently a review of chinese Android boxes, and it's very common for them to be shipped with malware

I would hazard that there is a chance that they're not compiling the source code themselves but rather either grabbing a generic image and slapping whatever firmware and drivers they have to use for their specific hardware onto the image, flashing and shipping.

I would rank the android issue as more likely a few bad actors behind the scene being amplified by the manufacturer's incompetence and/or negligence than any evil dpc shenanigans.

If you want to get a cheap android box, go for it, but plan on wiping the system and reinstalling it from scratch on your own before you connect it to a network.

You should probably do the same by default with any prebuilt windows PC. not necessarily because of spyware/viruses/botnets but just to get rid of bloatware and the like.

What other incentives are there to manufacture cheaply other than free surveillance?

Can we put someone with an IQ in office? Please?