5 ms·

Those types of sellers couldn't care less about reputation. Their customers don't come to them for reputation, but rather their low prices.

pishpash 9y ago
Here's the rule-of-thumb, these small time sellers are interested in sales, not pwning you. They may counterfeit but they aren't going to bother installing backdoors nor are they sophisticated enough to do so. They may inadvertently do so out of incompetence but that was not their goal. People who really do want to pwn you wear suits and sit in large offices and they will get you to do it voluntarily by signing a EULA.
- macintux 9y ago
  Seems like a market opportunity: if you're working on thin margins, why not take some NSA cash?
  - AstralStorm 9y ago
    Good luck doing that in China. It is provably the best and quickest way to end up in an unmarked grave or a secret prison and doom your family at the same time.
    - jwfxpr 9y ago
      The manufacturers may be based in China, but the importers, distributors, and sellers here discussed are not necessarily so. And I suspect you could happily replace NSA in the parent comment with any private or government intelligence agency of your choice. I wouldn't expect an unscrupulous distributor to suddenly grow scruples about precisely where the cash comes from.
    - blt 9y ago
      People so often rationalize away a plausible scenario of government surveillance by showing how it would require someone to be an irrational actor -- under a simplified, incomplete set of assumptions about the world. I do not understand why, after Snowden. Humans are not rational, and you cannot exhaustively list all the possible forces that might affect someone's decision.
  - woolvalley 9y ago
    You don't need NSA cash, you just need a place that will pay your X dollars to put in their advertising / monitoring malware on the device. The reincarnation of the browser bar.
    - macintux 9y ago
      That, however, is something your users will notice and complain about (maybe).

pishpash 9y ago

Here's the rule-of-thumb, these small time sellers are interested in sales, not pwning you. They may counterfeit but they aren't going to bother installing backdoors nor are they sophisticated enough to do so. They may inadvertently do so out of incompetence but that was not their goal. People who really do want to pwn you wear suits and sit in large offices and they will get you to do it voluntarily by signing a EULA.

macintux 9y ago
Seems like a market opportunity: if you're working on thin margins, why not take some NSA cash?
- AstralStorm 9y ago
  Good luck doing that in China. It is provably the best and quickest way to end up in an unmarked grave or a secret prison and doom your family at the same time.
  - jwfxpr 9y ago
    The manufacturers may be based in China, but the importers, distributors, and sellers here discussed are not necessarily so. And I suspect you could happily replace NSA in the parent comment with any private or government intelligence agency of your choice. I wouldn't expect an unscrupulous distributor to suddenly grow scruples about precisely where the cash comes from.
  - blt 9y ago
    People so often rationalize away a plausible scenario of government surveillance by showing how it would require someone to be an irrational actor -- under a simplified, incomplete set of assumptions about the world. I do not understand why, after Snowden. Humans are not rational, and you cannot exhaustively list all the possible forces that might affect someone's decision.
- woolvalley 9y ago
  You don't need NSA cash, you just need a place that will pay your X dollars to put in their advertising / monitoring malware on the device. The reincarnation of the browser bar.
  - macintux 9y ago
    That, however, is something your users will notice and complain about (maybe).