Have there been precedents of profiteering by hiding _something_ invisible to the end-user but with an ulterior purpose into normal consumer electronics?
Lenovo's Superfish? Prior to that, the Sony rootkit CDs? Pre-installed adware in general? Amazon's thing with the always-on microphone? The Samsung TVs that report all filenames on connected devices back to a server?
I miss the good old days of "If you aren't paying for a product, you are the product." Now, the new paradigm is: "By using our stuff, we own your data. All of it."
How do Global Fortune 500 companies think bundling malware is OK still after all the bad press the last few years?
Have there been precedents of profiteering by hiding _something_ invisible to the end-user but with an ulterior purpose into normal consumer electronics?