After they were removed by Amazon from its official website, mobile devices manufactured by Blu are now back on sale on the e-commerce giant’s store. Blu Products had made the announcement by posting a tweet last weekend, and even included a link to a search results web page generated on Amazon when searching for the keywords “blu phones.” Amazon also took the opportunity to verify over the weekend that Blu smartphones are indeed made available again.
A spokesperson for Amazon went on to explain that in occasions wherein the company acquires information that could possibly affect consumers’ shopping experience, it may decide to make a certain item unavailable for purchase on a temporary basis. After carefully coordinating with Blu, Amazon then made the decision to bring back the phone maker’s handsets on Amazon.com.
While it is true that Blu is not as big or as popular as mobile giants such as Samsung or Apple, it did manage to build quite a following on Amazon, specifically by selling budget friendly smartphone devices powered by Google’s Android mobile operating system. As a matter of fact, one of its products that was priced at just $60 became the best selling smartphone listed in Amazon.com.
But back in November of last year, there were reports that a number of Blu devices have specific third party software that sent the location data and communications information (including phone call logs and text messages) of users to servers based in China, without the knowledge and consent of the device owners. While Blu was quick to address the reports, claiming that the software had already been fixed in order to get rid of the secret data tracking issues, a new wave of reports that surfaced as recently as last month claimed that a cybersecurity firm believed that the data tracking is still being done on select Blu devices. Before the end of July, Amazon had then decided to remove Blu devices from its online store, that is until the problem was put to rest.
Interestingly, Shanghai Adups Technology, the Chinese firm that developed the third party software found on Blu devices, had stated that the issues were already resolved last year. Blu has even defended Shanghai Adups’ software, saying that it has made sure to put security policies in motion in order to ensure the privacy and safety of the user’s data. Online security remains a hot topic in this day and age, and with news of massive hacks and cases of mobile security compromised, it is pretty understandable why people are becoming more and more cautious.
