People are noticing that their phones are getting an app called “Android System Safetycore” auto-installed without notice or consent. Check your phone for the same, it is likely it’s a slow rollout instead of every device getting it installed all at the same time.
Google has all the same old reasons that they drone on about, but the actual reason is likely to harvest your messages data for training AI models.
Uninstalling seems to remove the application, and there aren’t any malicious activity reported so far as I can see, but naturally that can change anytime.
Has anyone noticed this in their applications lists? Did straight up uninstalling them work? I’ve had some trouble removing systems apps in the past, but uninstalling this one seems to have worked straightaway - I don’t see them in the list anymore.
URLs below for Reddit posts about the same: From 2 months ago: https://old.reddit.com/r/antivirus/comments/1gpdhwz/guys_help_some_app_called_android_system/
From 2 days ago: https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1idjbdi/googles_new_app_will_help_warn_you_about_nude/
Not on LOS, which is another great win for googless ROM’s
GrapheneOS should be fine
is it compatible with anything besides pixels yet? my phone is a Samsung galaxy something and I can’t afford a pixel but I really wanna try gtaphene
If you’re in the US, all Samsung phones are sold bootloader-locked and it’s a real pain in the ass to unlock them, if possible at all.
You can finance a pixel directly from G - and avoid carrier lock-in, and potentially save hundreds on your bill by not having to get an expensive plan to qualify for carrier financing - at 0% for 36 months.
rethink helps with googles bullshit too, its opensource firewall program for android. You wouldnt believe how much useless network traffic there is and it drains your battery faster too.
a simple adblocker can do it too, like Adaway
What use is uninstalling if it was automatically installed to begin with? As in, what’s gonna stop them from doing it again?
Good question. Some users say they found the app reinstalling on their devices after they uninstalled. Still good to stay informed.
check it if it reinstalls after updates
Stock for now
Not seeing it on my rooted LineageOS device yet. I’ll keep looking out for it, and methods to block installation if it does show up.
it won’t. LOS team doesn’t include it, as it is a “premium google service” that only stock google pixel and some Samsung phones have
My Nokia/HMD got it as well. Yanked that shit with prejudice
Yup, there on my Oneplus. I just wish I could use google pay reliably with a custom rom
The only way I was able to uninstall facebook on my old S9 was through
adb
. It works for preinstalled bloat probably should work for system apps as well.adb uninstall
package.appname.here
another win for custom rom users (vanilla, pico gapps, core gapps unaffected).
this is an example of Google trying to ruin the best operating system in ever existence. Don’t let that. Flash vanilla AOSP today
I just found it in my list and uninstalled it, doesn’t seem to have affected anything by removing it.
Google already has all of your data. Why would one extra app make a difference? There background service runs as root and sends back all data every few seconds. If you put your device in airplane mode it stores your data to disk before sending it back. Modern Android also has all Google proprietary apps that collect data. That includes everything from messages to calendar
The only way to get privacy is to use something based on AOSP that doesn’t have Google services framework.
i agree with the last part but i think “they already have my data it doesn’t matter” approach is the worst thought about privacy. It is almost never too late. If you start to care more about privacy, they will get much less amount of data, and the previously collected data becomes outdated, thus not usable to track you
They only way to stop the data collection is to stop using Google services. Google is very intent on gathering as much as possible so you can’t just stop the data collection.