BLU Class Action Says Cell Phone’s Firmware Illegally Spies on Users

An Alabama man says the firmware on BLU phones has been siphoning off users’ personal data without their permission or their knowledge.

Plaintiff Aaron Bonds says mobile phones made by defendant Blu Products Inc. are programmed to send their users’ personal data to a server in China.

The class action lawsuit claims the phones come pre-installed with firmware developed by defendant Adups that functions as spyware, intercepting the user’s personal information without their knowledge or consent.

Bonds says that in September 2016 he bought a BLU R1 mobile phone from Amazon. Before making the purchase, the plaintiff says he reviewed all the promotional material about the phone on Amazon’s website. The promotional material made no mention of the fact that the device would intercept and transmit the user’s personal information, Bonds claims.

But on Nov. 15, 2016, Bonds got an email from Amazon alerting him to a “potential security issue,” which he says was discovered by U.S. security firm Kryptowire. Several models of BLU phones had apparently been intercepting users’ private data and transmitting it to a server in Shanghai.

Through the use of this spying firmware, Bonds claims the affected BLU phones have exposed their users’ contact lists, call histories, unique device identifiers, the full content of their text messages, and information about the users’ physical locations.

According to this BLU phones class action lawsuit, BLU admitted to having the Adups firmware installed on about 120,000 BLU phones. Bonds says the firmware can’t be detected by the user, and users who know about the firmware can’t delete or disable it.

The Adups firmware in question is apparently able to slip past mobile phone security software. The security software allegedly recognizes the Adups firmware as having been installed by the phone’s manufacturer and therefore assumes it isn’t spyware.

The class action lawsuit accuses BLU and Adups of purposely concealing this spying firmware from BLU phone users.

Neither company ever disclosed the existence of this firmware or gave users a chance to opt out of having their data exposed, Bonds says. Before the Nov. 15 discovery, he claims users had no knowledge that they were being spied upon.

In his BLU class action lawsuit, Bonds is raising claims for violations of the federal Wiretap Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, as well as common law claims for invasion of privacy and trespass to chattels.

Bonds is seeking to represent a plaintiff Class consisting of “All persons in the United States who, at any time before November 15, 2016, purchased or owned any of the following Blu cell phones – R1 HD, Energy X Plus 2, Studio Touch, Advance 4.0 L2, Neo XL, or Energy Diamond – containing Adups firmware in any version from 5.0.x to 5.3.x.”

He is asking the court to order monetary and injunctive relief and to award him court costs and attorneys’ fees with pre- and post-judgment interest.

Bonds is represented by Amy Zeman of Gibbs Law Group and by Daniel C. Girard, Jordan Elias and Esfand Y. Nafisi of Girard Gibbs LLP.

The BLU Phones Spyware Class Action Lawsuit is Aaron Bonds v. Blu Products Inc., et al., Case No. 1:16-cv-24892, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

UPDATE: On April 10, 2017, this class action was consolidated with a similar lawsuit in a Florida federal court.