Amazon Blames Piracy Apps With Malware For Killing New Fire Stick Sideloading (arstechnica.com) 31
Amazon says it is ending sideloading on new Fire Sticks because "apps that facilitate piracy, and other apps, can carry malware," adding that there is "a good amount of evidence" that sideloaded apps may contain unwanted code or behavior. However, the company did not provide specific examples of Fire Stick users being harmed. Ars Technica reports: Amazon has released two Fire Stick models that use its proprietary, Linux-based operating system, Vega OS. Previous Fire Sticks ran Fire OS, which is an Android fork based on the Android Open Source Project. One of the biggest differences between Vega OS and Fire OS is that the former doesn't support sideloading. [...] In a recent interview, Or Goren, editor-in-chief of Cord Busters, a UK-based streaming news outlet, noted the negative reaction to Vega being a closed OS. [Aidan Marcuss, VP of Fire TV, advertising, and Appstore] responded, per the publication, by saying that Vega OS was Amazon's opportunity to "innovate and deliver more capabilities, even on the least expensive devices."
He also said that making a platform around security and privacy was "sort of utmost in my mind." The statement is somewhat ironic, considering Vega OS blocks custom launchers and other third-party apps that helped users avoid Amazon tracking and ads. Goren asked whether Amazon had evidence that sideloaded devices caused users harm. "Apps that facilitate piracy, and other apps, can carry malware," Marcuss responded. Marcuss also said that there is "a good amount of evidence that apps can carry unwanted code and behavior on them when they're sideloaded."
Marcuss didn't provide specific examples of Fire Stick users being hurt by sideloaded apps. There are some potential examples, though. In 2025, Amazon claimed to blacklist (which blocked the apps from being sideloaded to Fire Sticks) four video streaming apps for malicious behavior. At the time, AFTVnews reported that two of the apps served as residential proxy providers and were considered riskware, and that the other two had APK files that were flagged by virus-scanning tools. Safari and Chrome also flagged one of the apps' official websites, the publication reported. And in 2018, a botnet that infected Android devices with cryptocurrency-mining malware appeared on some Fire Sticks, per discussion on XDA Forums. That said, Amazon also has a history of disabling apps that let users circumnavigate its home screen that Fire devices, including Fire Sticks and Fire TVs, have increasingly used for ads. Worth noting: developers can continue sideloading apps onto Vega OS devices if they register them with Amazon.
He also said that making a platform around security and privacy was "sort of utmost in my mind." The statement is somewhat ironic, considering Vega OS blocks custom launchers and other third-party apps that helped users avoid Amazon tracking and ads. Goren asked whether Amazon had evidence that sideloaded devices caused users harm. "Apps that facilitate piracy, and other apps, can carry malware," Marcuss responded. Marcuss also said that there is "a good amount of evidence that apps can carry unwanted code and behavior on them when they're sideloaded."
Marcuss didn't provide specific examples of Fire Stick users being hurt by sideloaded apps. There are some potential examples, though. In 2025, Amazon claimed to blacklist (which blocked the apps from being sideloaded to Fire Sticks) four video streaming apps for malicious behavior. At the time, AFTVnews reported that two of the apps served as residential proxy providers and were considered riskware, and that the other two had APK files that were flagged by virus-scanning tools. Safari and Chrome also flagged one of the apps' official websites, the publication reported. And in 2018, a botnet that infected Android devices with cryptocurrency-mining malware appeared on some Fire Sticks, per discussion on XDA Forums. That said, Amazon also has a history of disabling apps that let users circumnavigate its home screen that Fire devices, including Fire Sticks and Fire TVs, have increasingly used for ads. Worth noting: developers can continue sideloading apps onto Vega OS devices if they register them with Amazon.
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Yur mom would be more surprised about that antiquated Firestick browser than the content in it.
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Uh huh... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Uh huh... (Score:4)
For decades now I would have whole-heartedly agreed with your scathing sarcasm. But today the clueless script kiddies are bolstered by AI. I think a bit of caution is laudable for a year or three until we get a handle on the wave of zero-days. Your point still stands; they did this because of the points you make; that doesn't invalidate the stated protectional purpose as well.
Re: Uh huh... (Score:2)
Not sure what other people have to do with us losing our freedoms
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Not sure what other people have to do with us losing our freedoms
The era of "protect me mommy" kids have grown up thinking that corporations and governments are our parents, our friends, our protectors. They are now of the belief that only the juggernauts of the world can protect us from ourselves. The short version: Any excuse will do to gank our freedoms. Less freedoms = more safety. And we all know the meaning of life is having the illusion of safety.
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Just trying to keep people safe. Nothing to do with lock-in, rent seeking, control over everything you watch, or mass surveillance. Not about any of that AT ALL!
Vote with your wallet. Do not purchase a FireStick.
Amazon cares about your security (Score:5, Insightful)
Amazon cares about your security. Which is why their next step will be to also remove fraudulent, dangerous or IP infringing products from amazon.com. Right?
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I simpatize with the sentiment, but the firestick and OS division inside Amazon is different from the Tat-Baazar division of amazon.
In super-large companies, divisions seldomly, is ever, talk amongst themselves, are ultra large companies in themselves, and sometimes have conflicting goals.
Think of sony, the Media division was puting rootkits in music CDs, and selling region locked DVDs. MEanwile the consumer electronnics division was selling multiregion DVD players with DivX support, with extremely good rea
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I'm sure they all get subjected to the same annual corporate ethics training courses. Some policies apply company wide even in megacorps that employ 300,000 people.
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FireTV devices are probably sold at a loss - the goal is to addict you to Amazon services so you'll purchase them. It's why Amazon Prime Video has special offers with practically every streaming service so if you subscribe through Amazon they get a cut.
Of course, pirate apps hurt this business model - they want you paying for Amazon Prime Video, not getting a cheap media plyer.
Bloated, laggy, non-intuitive interfaces (Score:5, Interesting)
The only thing that made dealing with the above worthwhile was the fact that you could sideload apps, like RetroArch and Kodi, to make the device more useful than your average Smart TV device, like a Roku or AppleTV. With sideloading gone, I can safely say I'll never buy an Fire TV device again.
weird (Score:2)
Who came to defend the honor of the fire stick?
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All my Rokus are now infested with ads but the Roku stick is even worse since it seems to take an absurd amount of time for it to just connect to the wifi.
(my real Rokus are all hard wired)
Hey Amazon! (Score:2)
Blame those same apps... (Score:2)
Firestick = pirate device with no skills required. (Score:3)
For years, people who know nothing about torrents or other methods of downloading content would just buy a "firestick'. People have been selling them loaded with apps to stream pirate content, cracked apps, etc. I'm sure Amazon wasn't happy being associated with that.
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Indeed. The question is why now?
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Mostly about piracy, I'd bet. For years, people who know nothing about torrents or other methods of downloading content would just buy a "firestick'. People have been selling them loaded with apps to stream pirate content, cracked apps, etc. I'm sure Amazon wasn't happy being associated with that.
You misspelled "privacy".
Setup a media server (Score:2)
The only thing I ever used a FireStick for was to connect to my media server with an App Store approved app when I traveled and used hotels.Worst case scenario, I could jack in the FireStick to HDMI and connect the power cable to a USB port. It beats using a tablet or a phone to watch content on a small screen. The more modern tech savvy hotels you can just stream via AirPlay or Chromecast to the TV from a smartphone.
The side-loaded pirate streaming apps are what the newbs use who don't know any better.
Sadl
Fine, try to block it (Score:5, Interesting)
But a computer I can't load my own code on is no longer a general purpose computer - it's a walled-garden appliance and I'm not going to buy it.
Well yeah (Score:3)
Doing what Roku did...quit using both years ago. (Score:2)
wild (Score:2)
Whats wild to me is think of the whole process that led to this. All of the meetings to decide to do it. Gather metrics for making the decision. Getting it on the backlog. Developing it. Testing it. Crafting the press release. Thousands of total man hours and probably a quarter million dollars. And nobody in that whole process was like "wait, is this worth it? Is this going to bring in more customers to the amazon ecosystem? Is this going to keep people on the platform?" Or if anyone did ask tho
Apps can carry malware (Score:2)
How long until Vega OS gets cracked then (Score:1)
Plenty of Android Boxen Outhere (Score:3)
True android boxes, with full android support (not AOSP). Problem is, no subsidies.
Which means, low quality low performance at low prices. Or Decent Quality Decent performance at high prices, or anything in between (including low quality, low performance at high prices).
The reason why many sideloaders gravitated towards the amazon fire TV ecosystem was that it was subsidized, therefore, decent performance (once you left the home screen and entered your sideloaded app), decent hardware, decent quality, decent SW support, super-low price
If you have a Walmart nearby, ONN TV boxes vahe a good reputation of middling performance, decent build quality, not so great SW updates track record at a low price. But buyer beware, walmatr got serious about you using the box in the country you bought it, so, if you buy one in the USoA or europe and get it to LatAm or the middle east, it will not work propperly.
Ironic for a company happy to sell goods known to (Score:2)
Ironic for a company happy to sell goods known to burn down customer homes (i.e. known bad chargers, batteries, electrical panel fuses, etc...) but restricts the sideloading of any software on their firesticks due to "safety" concerns.
One can also say, users might want to side load fucken security software on their devices too, so they're actively preventing users from actually enhancing their safety. (the options on the app store are a painful joke)
Unfortunately, Amazon sells this shit at too low a price