@elbanditoroso has got it right. You have no idea what malware is embedded in them. The prices are low for a reason. – to get people to buy and use them.
Remember the fiasco a few years back with the cheap chinese made electronic picture frames that were sold at WalMart, Target, and Home Depot? They came with software that you needed to install on your PC. The problem was they also loaded 4 different types of spyware/malware : a keylogger, password stealer, back door and some sort of port redirect. ( I don’t remember exactly. ) . Many of these bargain frames were sold around Christmas time for $10—$20. Who knows where they all are now and what info they’re sending back.
This is an old article about the Best Buy frames with the virus installed. . I’ll keep looking
Found another article The gift that keeps on giving Feb 2008. There are many other examples. I’m sure all that spyware was just an accident. ~
“The virus, which Computer Associates calls Mocmex, recognizes and blocks antivirus protection from more than 100 security vendors, as well as the security and firewall built into Microsoft Windows. It downloads files from remote locations and hides files, which it names randomly, on any PC it infects, making itself very difficult to remove. It spreads by hiding itself on photo frames and any other portable storage device that happens to be plugged into an infected PC.
The authors of the new Trojan Horse are well-funded professionals whose malware has “specific designs to capture something and not leave traces,” Grayek said. “This would be a nuclear bomb” of malware.”