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Google’s ‘Secret’ Update Scans All Your Photos (www.forbes.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Per one tech forum this week: “Google has quietly installed an app on all Android devices called ‘Android System SafetyCore’. It claims to be a ‘security’ application, but whilst running in the background, it collects call logs, contacts, location, your microphone, and much more making this application ‘spyware’ and a HUGE privacy concern. It is strongly advised to uninstall this program if you can. To do this, navigate to 'Settings’ > 'Apps’, then delete the application.”

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[–] 222 points 2 years ago (20 children)

SafetyCore Placeholder so if it ever tries to reinstall itself it will fail due to signature mismatch.

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  • [–] 43 points 2 years ago (14 children)

    I struggle with GitHub sometimes. It says to download the apk but I don't see it in the file list. Anyone care to point me in the right direction?

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  • [–] 42 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    There's an app called obtainium that let's you link the main page of github apps and manages both the download, the instalation and the updates of those apps.

    Great if you want the latest software directly from the source.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I didn't understand the value of fdroid all since it feels like a web wrapper. Thanks to you finally pulled the trigger on Obtanium. Omg that's simple af

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago

    It's a web wrapper that points to a non-Google software repo.

    The non-Google software repo is the important part, the interface can be bad as long as it can install software.

    I use Obtanium too, but fDroid is my first stop when I need an app. Google's Play store is a last resort.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    Droid-ify and Neo-Store are alternative clients for the F-Droid repository (and other repos), that you may like better than the official client. But yeah, Obtainium is indeed simple and it's powerful if you already know exactly which app you want to install (rather than searching for relevant options in some repositories).

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    At the bottom of the page, it says releases - click on the release that's there, and that's where you'll find the all.

    I haven't been able to install it though due to signature mismatch, I'm not sure why...

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    And what exactly does the github App do?

    Is suppose it's not the same as the Google App?

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago

    It doesn't do anything. The only reason to consider installing it is that this is cryptographically signed by another developer, so if Google tries to install safety core again, it will fail because googled signature is different. It also has a super high version number, so that Google hopefully will not think to try to install the software.

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