Kodi: New ‘spyware’ addon watches what you do to see if you’ve been streaming films and TV illegally
'Understandably, end users are outraged'
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A new Kodi addon has been designed to find out whether or not you use the software for piracy.
If the software – which is called KN Addon Caretaker – believes you've been using Kodi to illegally stream TV shows, films and sports fixtures, it will continuously display a warning message telling you to uninstall any “harmful” pirate addons you might have.
The message won’t go away unless you comply.
According to TVAddons, a highly popular library for addons, at least two Kodi skin developers have decided to push KN Addon Caretaker to users as part of a new update.
The skins in question are Estuary MOD V2 and Embuary.
TVAddons reports that the developers who created them say they decided to include KN Addon Caretaker as “a dependency” in order to protect themselves, as they don’t wish to be linked with illicit addons.
However, the move has provoked criticism, as it means some Kodi users have installed the software without realising. They could also be having their Kodi usage habits monitored against their wishes.
“Understandably, end users are outraged,” says TVAddons. “Some are even calling [KN Addon Caretaker] spyware.”
KN Addon Caretaker constantly checks which addons you have installed, to work out what you're using Kodi for. Users who want to get rid of it are being advised to uninstall the Estuary MOD V2 and Embuary skins.
“This seems like another attack against the addons that made Kodi popular in the first place,” wrote TVAddons. “As abusive lawsuits have began to plague the unofficial Kodi community, we’ve noticed an alarming trend in official Kodi developers attacking the unofficial addon community, within the official Kodi forums as well as over social media.
“Many of these attacks are unwarranted considering the fact that once upon a time Kodi itself was home to many of the addons which they now claim to hate.”
It added: “We strongly believe that end users should always have the right to choose, otherwise what’s the point?”
Kodi has spoken out against addons that are designed to enable piracy and the people who use them on multiple occasions, and recently clashed with TVAddons online.
It called for TVAddons to be shut down earlier this month, saying it brings “nothing but misery to everyone”.
TVAddons responded by saying Kodi was no longer in touch with its users.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments