LOL 

That being said, is there a reason why the firmware automatically installs adups (and, from what we can see, fota)?

I'm quite sure neither of these are part of the core Android SDK, so they are being added in by the OEM crew somewhere along the line. The question is, why?

PanopticEmu wrote:

That being said, is there a reason why the firmware automatically installs adups (and, from what we can see, fota)?

I'm quite sure neither of these are part of the core Android SDK, so they are being added in by the OEM crew somewhere along the line. The question is, why?

This is for OTA updates.

In other words if you want automatic over the air updates on your BV phone, you must agree to allow an app (that allegedly sends your arguably private data to a Chinese data farm for unspecified allegedly nefarious uses by said data farm) to run in the background on your device, verifiably connecting to a server verifiably on a porn domain.

On a rooted device there is always the option of modifying iptables rules. It takes some time to learn it but it worths.

On the other hand you can't keep your personal data safe unless you make your own ROM, by yourself. So I say this: if google has my data anyway (abandon all hope, they have it!) let's give it to all and let them fight.