New Google Spware? Probably.

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I woke up this morning to find a new little friend on my phone! Android Safety Core.

So what is this great new application that was non-consentually installed on my device with no indicator that it ever was except an alert from Tracker Control.

(Shout out to Tracker Control on F-Droid for giving me a notif about apps when you install them. It's the only reason I ever noticed this app was put on my phone.

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There isn't a of information on it, but essentially its an app that "protects" you from obscene images on your phone.

"One of the new features the company announced is called Sensitive Content Warnings. This is designed to give you more control over seeing and sending nude images. When enabled, it blurs images that might contain nudity before you view them and then prompts you with what Google calls a “speed bump” containing “help-finding resources and options, including to view the content.” The feature also kicks in and shows a so-called “speed bump” when you try to send or forward an image that might contain nudity." - Android Authority

As for the Google play description, it's very detailed about what your new friend entails.

Very descriptive.

So essentially it blurs any images of nudity that is sent to you or that is seen. This is so great to me! Finally I can use my phone in peace without having to worry about all those nude images randomly showing up and attacking me anymore!

Obviously the app has to see all the images that are sent to you in order to do this. I'm sure this won't be abused!

People are taking it well too.

Alright, some good news is that the app can be uninstalled. However to find it on the store you need to look up the link in your browser. I also provided it here.

Dont we all love google and what it does behind our backs for us?

TL;DR

Google recently non-consentually installed a new "safety" feature on our devices that blur any nude images that are sent to you or seen on your phone. They didn't include any sort of update alert or anything and simply slipped it onto devices quietly. Here's a link to the app where you can uninstall if you wish. Of course in order for an app to do this, it needs to see every photo that is ever sent to you. A clear privacy invasion if I say so myself.

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this of course after using ai to ban 2.3 million 'security threat' aps.

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Turns out it was on my phone too. Uninstalled and reported as inappropriate. Fuck Google

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Also deceptive for them to list it on the Play Store as having 500,000,000 "downloads", when the vast majority of those are non-consensual automatic installations.

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I guess "downloads" are really just how many phones have it.

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This is why I have all auto updates turned off, and just do it manually once every week or so. Corporations can never be trusted.

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I'm the same but clearly got lazy and either ok'd it or It still snuck past since it was installed on my phone.

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Weird, it's not on my phone (yet?), and I have a Pixel 9. Maybe I'll be in a later rollout.

Well, I was already building a list of things to prepare for backup so I can migrate to GrapheneOS. I guess this puts more priority on it.

I do wonder, though. Does it work on encrypted chat apps like Signal? Seems like it shouldn't, but maybe it works differently.

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One positive is that they at least allow you to uninstall it.

Which I've just done because I didn't even know it existed and it certainly didn't show up in the Play Store at any point.

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I get it that Google is being in appropriately intrusive here.

But honestly outside the privacy bubble most people won't really care about it. In fact they'd be happy to have it automatically installed for them.

I get it that we don't like it. But most of the population don't seem to care.

Also is this like a separate app or is it baked into Google services?

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Doesn't a stock Android installation come with several dozen apps? Do you expect to consent to each one individually?

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Sound a lot like client side scanning. This can be so easily used to do mass surveillance and censorship. It also makes any encryption in RCS completely useless.

Use GrapheneOS its great

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The app doesn’t connect to the internet, so it’s not that big of a deal. I guess that could change in the future though.

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Y'all don't download a FOSS messaging app from Fdroid?

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People need to learn what on device processing is.

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Time to switch to GrapheneOS. Well it has been for a long time.

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It may only be for SMS or google messages. It isn't really clear.

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the important question that needs answers is how the fuck do i block it.

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My device has the ability to disable the WiFi + mobile data option for it.

However for apps that actually dont have internet access, they won't show up in this list.

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You are complaining about the photo monitoring functionality, which happens 100% on device. You can confirm this very easily by monitoring the app’s network activity when you receive an image. Android System SafetyCore does a lot more things than photo monitoring, one of which is providing emergency location data (ELS). This is required by law in the EU, India, and the USA.

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New Google Spware? Probably.