Cheap Aftermarket Car Head Units Found Loaded With Spyware

A Honda Civic owner bought a cheap Amazon head unit and used Claude to inspect its firmware, finding Baidu location services, a call recorder, a WebView voice assistant and a script that reinstalls Chinese apps QQMusic and Ximalaya. Sellers don't disclose the software, and the devices are sold under countless no-name brands.

• The WebView voice assistant constantly used about a third of processing power
• Firmware included Baidu location services, a call recorder and a DAB radio useless in the US
• A script reinstalled QQMusic, Ximalaya and an app store whenever they were removed
• All the unwanted software was stripped from the OS and replaced with user-controlled services