I don't really care if there is malware running in my living room. Makes no difference to me if it runs there or at the north pole. It isn't exactly wasting much of my power or network with a tiny allwinner CPU and probably only 54Mbit WiFi.
And as long as this thing keeps steaming TV, I'm quite happy for it to be full of malware.
Or acts as a proxy allowing people to route all kinda of shit through (or into) your network...
A lot of those "residential proxy services" work by routing traffic through infected devices. The operators of them just buy "installs" (dirt cheap) from botnet operators, etc.
An infected device on the home network can also be staging for (automated) attacks against other shit on your network. Fun times.
Your windows machine likely have more lax permissions for the internal LAN. It's easier to try and install a keylogger, and steal your passwords on various sites, card numbers, etc.
This all gets bought and sold on black markets, and gets used weeks and months after being stolen. Spam sent covertly from your mail account, mystery charges on your CC, etc. Not pleasant. At the worst case, a full identity theft, then behold a $30k loan taken in your name, for you to repay with interest.
Using your accounts presumably - so at the very least this thing has access to your hulu/netfliux/hbo/disney+ account information... That alone should be enough to make one reconsider.
I don't really care if there is malware running in my living room. Makes no difference to me if it runs there or at the north pole. It isn't exactly wasting much of my power or network with a tiny allwinner CPU and probably only 54Mbit WiFi.
And as long as this thing keeps steaming TV, I'm quite happy for it to be full of malware.