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Could your ObamaPhone arrive with malware installed?

August 2, 2021 | | Filed Under: General Tagged With: security

One of the most frequent complaints we get from readers is that, “My ObamaPhone was hacked from day one.”

Quite honestly, we have doubted those concepts, but now researchers are telling us those readers may have been right. They tell us that some Lifeline phones (from some Lifeline companies) really are loaded with malware that traps ObamaPhone users in an non-stop series of pop-up ads. Those ads are annoying enough, but it means data is being consumed even when the ObamaPhone user isn’t using his ObamaPhone.

A cnet.com investigator made this report:

The phone’s settings and update apps contained code that allowed them to load malicious apps known as adware. The adware displayed ads that covered users’ screens, no matter what they were doing on their phones.

…Because the phones and their service plans were subsidized by a US program, taxpayers were funding the data that was used to display the promotional campaigns. On top of that, the adware prevented the phones doing their intended job: keeping low-income people connected to vital services via phone and internet.

Evidence suggests pre-installed malware plagues inexpensive phones around the world. Earlier this year, Collier found pre-installed malware, a broad range of disruptive or dangerous apps, on a phone made by Unimax and distributed by the Lifeline program. Collier says he frequently sees similar malware on cheap phones outside the Lifeline program.

As you might expect, Unimax did not appreciate cnet.com’s defining the issue as “malware.” In a comment that made us laugh out loud, it said it preferred to call it “a vulnerability in its settings app.” Sounds so much more innocent, does it not?

But this is not a mere inconvenience to ObamaPhone users. A cell phone — even a free ObamaPhone — is worthless if you can’t use it because it is cursed with pop-up ad after pop-up ad after pop-up ad.

Of course, a spokesman for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the government agency in charge of the ObamaPhone program said, “The security of Americans’ cell phones is critical, and the FCC urges Lifeline providers to protect consumers from adware and malware.” 

Add this ridiculous situation to recent FBI raid on Q Link, and it becomes obvious that the ObamaPhone program has some major problems. A lot of critics are taking note and asking why the government spends billions of dollars on a program that with so many problems.

Clean it up, FCC, clean it up.

Important Pages

  • A guide to Obama Phone providers in your state
  • Obama Phone News & Updates
  • What is the Obama Phone?
  • Who qualifies for an Obama Phone?
    • Tribal Head Start
    • Veterans Pension and Survivors Pension Eligibility for an Obama Phone
  • How to Get an Obama Phone?
  • Obamaphone Providers
  • Who Started the Obama Phone?
  • Lifeline Facts
  • Obama Phone FAQs
  • Discussion Forum / Q&A

Subsidized Internet Too

The FCC has also encouraged major internet providers to provide high-speed broadband to the very same people that qualify for the Obama Phone. Only $9.95 a month. There are cheap internet plans for both cable and DSL. To learn more please go to CheapInternet.com.

Recent News

  • Dropping like a rock: ObamaPhone enrollment falls by two million in three years
  • $7 Billion Bonanza: The new FCC Broadband Connectivity Fund
  • Sprint charges government for inactive Lifeline customers, FCC fines them $200 million for fraud
  • More than 1,000,000 have already signed up for government’s new $50 per month internet discount
  • Universal broadband for everyone who needs it! Free government cell phones for everyone who needs them! Mark Lowenstein for FCC Commissioner!
  • Could your ObamaPhone arrive with malware installed?
  • Assist Wireless exposes tens of thousands of customer IDs in five states
  • Is it the BidenPhone? Free unlimited talk, unlimited text AND unlimited data for a limited time
  • USAC’s port freeze rule eliminated, ObamaPhone customers can now switch companies at any time
  • Obama is gone, and now his enemies want to kill the Obama Phone program

Some Facts

#1 The Lifeline Assistance program started in Tennessee in mid-2008 and is now available in 49 states, DC and Puerto Rico.

#2 You qualify for a phone simply by accepting other government assistance -- Medicaid, food stamps, SSI, National School Lunch, Section 8 Housing, Home Energy assistance and others.

#3 The FCC is currently wrapping up a large pilot program that's testing ways to expand the ObamaPhone program to include broadband internet access.

Read More:
Lifeline Facts

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