I received an iProda tablet as a gift and am wondering what steps i should take to protect myself. I don’t intend to hook it to my regular google credentials, but is even letting it use my WiFi safe?
On an interesting note its smoother running than my Samsung Tab A.
In the War With The Machines, all bets are off, but in the meantime, what do you expect it to do that would be untoward?
I do not know, but i don’t want it sending my e-mails to some state actor or locking me out of my email and demanding a ransom.
That said are there issues i should be wary of that i’m not thinking of?
Install an open source firmware.
I have no idea how.
I don’t plan to do online banking or anything like that on it, though i am curious what the potential hazards are just letting it use my Wifi and if that can be mitigated somehow?
Potentially everything you enter into a computer/tablet may end up where it doesn’t belong. To be safe, you wouldn’t enter any credentials and personal information.
And then there are groups taking the Android sources and publishing firmware files for a varity of tablets and phones. LineageOS is one example. I do not use it but mention it here so you know what I’m taking about. If you want to go this route, you need to find out if a distribution exists for your hardware.
If possible, try to “root” this model of tablet to remove hypothetical factory-planted malware system apps (you never know)
If not, you still can install F-Droid and use trusted, proven open-source apps from this repository (K9-Mail for emails, etc…)
First, what OS? Android? Winduhs?
Might come with preinstalled bloatware and crapplets which you can’t remove/delete/uninstall. Or it might be fairly clean. No way to tell.
It has Android 10
It absolutely positively is risky to use. Even if you do a factory reset, the malware will still be there. IMHO, not worth the risk. Get rid of it and get a $99 Samsung from BB. Sleep easier.
But why is it risky to use?
And can i mitigate that risk?
I plan to never use it for banking, e-mail or anything personal.
I already have a Samsung tablet but it would be nice to use this thing for the calculator, a GPS and media box (plus in microsd card with media).
Bump
If i let it use my WiFi and never do anything sensitive on it (allow it to access my email or use online banking on it) what are the risks i am looking at?
No risks. Your tablet could be just fine. Or at worst some adware will make some ads popup here and there.
It’s an illusion that brand names are safer. If anything they become a more interesting target, because of the bigger userbase and thus potentially more victims. And Samsung is known to install phone home software in some of their products (although that’s not used for wifi hacking afaik). Don’t know about their tablets, but it does tell you something about how much they ‘care’ about your privacy. This goes for multiple big brands btw, so not Samsung specific.
I’d say virtually none, provided you have common sense and assume the internet is not your best friend. Also called security awareness (which you already are). E.g. keep software up to date to minimize any security leaks and don’t click on any shady links.
What is the update policy of the iProda manufacturer? Are you stuck with the firmware it comes with or are updates guaranteed?
I have no idea, i have not let it connect to the internet yet.
I’m waiting to see what posters to this thread tell me.
I think the forum is going to tell you conflicting information. ALL the manufacturers of EVERY phone/tablet/laptop/OS harvest and sells your info. Known issue we generally all dislike, and put up with.
SOME of the cheap devices have been known to plant apps and/or firmware that will send personal info about you. You may….or may not….be able to remove that with a “root”, which sounds like it’s beyond your capability/interest in doing. You seem to know this already.
Whether that specific Tab is more or less prone to those kind of problems may be difficult to impossible to learn. Doubt you’ll find specific info here, just the mixed messages you are getting.
There are no guarantees on stuff like this. I think you’ve probably already made up your mind, you’ll probably use it…. 
. You’re just looking for reassurance. 
There is good reason to be concerned about any computer boards assembled overseas. This includes phones and tablets from big-name western companies along with foreign brands, be they well-known or otherwise.
Read this to find out some of the things China has been doing:
When you have businesses that are government owned or controlled, it should not be surprising that stuff like this happens. That's why I continue to be suspicious of Huawei products.
Of course, it would be naive to assume that western governments are not investigating or applying similar techniques. In the west, however, there is more separation between government and business, so we all cross our fingers, and hope it's harder for government to insinuate itself in our computers.
Intel recently announced that its next round of manufacturing factories will be built in the USA.
We would be better off if more companies would bring their chip manufacturing back home.
Most routers offer a client isolation mode that prevents attached devices from talking to each other. That’s a good first defense for those cheapie IoT devices like tablets, light bulbs and cameras that might have dodgy software.