www @ Savannah: Malware in Proprietary Software – April 2025 Additions

The initial injustice of proprietary software often leads to further injustices: malicious functionalities.

The introduction of unjust techniques in nonfree software, such as back doors, DRM, tethering, and others, has become ever more frequent. Nowadays, it is standard practice.

We at the GNU Project show examples of malware that has been introduced in a wide variety of products and dis-services people use everyday, and of companies that make use of these techniques.

Here are our latest additions

April 2025

Malware in Games

• Nintendo has devoted a lot of effort to preventing users from installing third-party software on its Switch consoles. These are now full-blown jails.

Malware in Appliances

• The company making a “smart” bassinet called Snoo has locked the most advanced functionalities of the Snoo behind a paywall. This unexpected change mainly affects users who received the appliance as a gift, or bought it second-hand on the assumption that all these functionalities would be available to them, as they used to be. This is another example of the deceptive behavior of proprietary software developers who take advantage of their power over users to change rules at will.

Another malicious feature of the Snoo is the fact that users need to create an account with the company, which thus has access to personal data, location (SSID), appliance log, etc., as well as manual notes about baby history.

Source: Planet GNU