Policy group New America hit the headlines for slamming the HTC G2 for including a "hardware rootkit" that prevents users from installing custom firmware on the device. The group based its claims on an XDA discussion thread which appeared to be a method of the G2 blocking third-party firmware.

However Arstechnica said that blocking third-party firmware is nothing new and doesn't come with anything that could correctly be described as a rootkit. It appears that the NAND write-blocking mechanism in the G2 is nearly identical to the one that HTC has included in the EVO 4G and other previous devices.

Android modders agree that the mechanism is annoying and will be cracked but they have not got around to it yet.