> The other part of the concern is that the only recourse is to uninstall the updater. However, that means users could miss out on critical security patches and other goodies. In other words, choose your poison.

This reads like utter nonsense. If the software updater provided to you by the manufacturer is delivering malware to you, why on earth would you bother trusting “security updates” it provides to you. Unless there’s any actual evidence, given that the researchers admit the installed apps don’t actually contain malware, it all reads like a bunch of unnecessary scaremongering.

> There is some debate as to whether these findings constitute the malware label, as opposed to PUPs (potentially unwanted programs). According to Sprint, its own testing has not uncovered any malware on the U686CL.