Google’s Unannounced Update Scans All Your Photos—One Click Stops It
(www.forbes.com)
Comments (55)
sorted by:
TL;DR: Go into your Apps and uninstall SafetyCore.
It was something like Android SafetyCore on mine. Searching only worked with a certain number of letters. The sneaky bastards don't make it easy to find.
I don't see it in my Android apps, nor can I find it in the Play store like in the article.
I wonder if my device is simply too old.
Check in Settings>Apps and then search for safety that's how I found it.
Just did that, both on my tablet and my phone. Can't find anything with the word "safety" in it.
Same here.
according to a comment on the article, apparently you have to look for "android safetycore" or something like that. make sure you're in the "all apps" area, and "include system apps" is checked if it's an option, just to be sure.
Well that helps to see more of what's installed here, but I'm still not seeing anything labeled safetycore. Closest I found was Safety Information, but I don't think that's it.
according to a comment on the article, apparently you have to look for "android safetycore" or something like that. make sure you're in the "all apps" area, and "include system apps" is checked if it's an option, just to be sure.
Found it. You the man
always happy to help.
I found it, but I don't have the option to delete it when clicking on it.
Android system safety core.
you should have the uninstall option
I doubt that. I read it was installing on old devices and crashing them. What I did was Settings > Apps > All apps, then tap the 3 dots at the upper right corner to show system apps. It should show up on that list in some form. You can try using the search but as I said that was a little funky, although it did help in the end.
Revealing the system apps is what did it for me, thanks.
I tried again with Search (in Settings/App) and didn't find it.
I suggested the device being too old because I know the Play store wouldn't even return search results for mobile games that aren't compatible with your OS.
One way to make sure it's not installed is to find it in the browser play store, if it says "install" it's not installed.
I can't seem to find it. Maybe you have to opt in in the first place and people just forgot doing it?
Jesus, at this point I'm thinking of getting that thousand dollar smartphone that James O'Keefe is shilling.
Are there any other fucking phone OS's that aren't Alphabet Spyware, Apple garbage, and Chinese Spyware?
I use graphene OS on mine. Sounds weird to go degoogle with a Google phone but works surprisingly well. Mostly supports pixel phones since with those you can relocked your boot loader.
if you DO want playstore apps an functionality(since no play services) you can either make a second user or use something like shelter that uses the work profile as a kinda sandbox and get play services with that. I mostly need those for banking app but most stuff I switched to open source alternatives which thankfully isn't as bad with android.
Same. Graphene is quite simple and straightforward. Can still use google apps if you want but they are sandboxed
Maybe try a Linux phone?
Or get a burner flip phone like me
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system?useskin=vector
That android list... (also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_custom_Android_distributions?useskin=vector)
I dunno which one he's selling. The main advantage of the privacy phones, IMO, are the manual cut-off switches. They can't record you if the microphone(s) is/are disconnected. Same with camera. And it's fairly easy to verify that functionality. GPS can be cut off via the antenna. Having a data plan probably reduces your privacy, but you can buy one. ICR if they have a switch for the modem, but if you wanted to be Wifi only you just don't install SIM.
Another reason to do this is if you ever want to do something, and you always carry your phone with you, they'll notice if you don't. I've seen that used as evidence. If you keep all that shit turned off except when you're using it, there's no gap evidence like that. For everyone, I would at least go ahead and turn off location services being on all the time. Unless you just really never plan on havin ganything to hide from anyone including ex-wife etc.
The spying is way beyond what most people can fathom at this point. You’d be wise to assume any digital communication you make is being intercepted and saved in a system that has a digital footprint profile for every individual American, one that categorizes all of us and can predict our behavior based on that digital footprint. Look into the “Sentient World Simulation”, that shit will blow your mind. This spying problem is not even something you can avoid by not owning smart tech. A few years ago I was on a military base doing some contractor work, and there were predator drones taking off every 10 minutes while I was there. I was right next to a predator drone in a hanger while talking to the base commander about how good the optics are, when he said that even at 20,000ft up, if you were to hold your hand out with change in it, that drone operator could zoom in with such clarity he could count that change like he was right there. Our gov was using drones in Mexico back around 2012 trying to help the Mexican government combat drug cartel activities. Those drones were recording vid nonstop in a massive grid that could see entire regions of Mexico, so when a drug cartel bombed an enemy, our military could use the video from whatever drone filmed that particular area to go back in time through the footage to the moment a suspect planted that bomb, then reverse the footage following the suspect back to his house or the cartel hideout in order to help the Mexican government arrest these guys. Our NSA is using that same drone tech above the entirety of the U.S. right now, there’s no hiding from their spy programs in the sky, on the light poles, on our smart products, on the ring doorbells, or wherever the fuck else…it’s everywhere.
That sounds accurate.
There’s proof of numerous telecommunications corporations, and tech manufacturer's working directly with the NSA for years to ensure the NSA has backdoor access and spyware in all of the major networks and tech produced by the corporations they work with. I’m sure there is a monetary incentive involved to sway companies like Dell and Verizon to comply, but also, I’d be willing to bet our government would’ve forced those corporations to work with the NSA regardless of how they felt about it, saying it’s a national security threat for government not to have the access they demand. I can’t prove any of them were forced to comply, because that info would likely remain top secret forever, but if one of them was forced to comply, you can bet your ass they all are….and if that’s the case, there’s no chance in hell a privacy based phone manufacturer would ever be allowed to exist without being paid a visit from the NSA, who would then force the manufacturer to install whatever spyware the NSA wants in that product.
Comment Reported for: Rule 16 - Identity Attacks
Comment Removed for: Rule 16 - Identity Attacks
Of all the criticisms you could have made over the phone, you chose the stupidest one.
Jews aren't in the phone. It's fine. Calm down.
Yes, the JIDF is totally a thing of the past and they would never harvest your data to monitor you, actually the hamas would.
Literally something else can exist besides Mossad.
WhatsApp voice calls used to inject Israeli spyware on phones
I would like to know what those words are.
Comment Reported for: Rule 16 - Identity Attacks
Comment Removed for: Rule 16 - Identity Attacks
I had that app. It was 47MB in my system unlike the 2GB reported in the article. Already uninstalled.
Leaving a comment for future reference in case it pops up again.
That's crazy. I crossposted to c/privacy thanks!
google being google. More news at eleven.
It really shouldn't come as a surprise to google (android) users that google got rid of "Don't be evil" a long time ago. Jump in bed with dogs, get fleas.
Hey as long as you're not saying this as an Apple user. As long as you don't have a phone or have one of the weird ones. I mean say what you want, but if you use this stuff you're a hypocrite. I have rooted android with dev-build on it to eliminate carrier garbage. And I don't pretend anything beyond that.
I'm not. I don't even have a smartphone, heh. I despise hypocrites myself.
They're probably using it to find CP they can swipe for the troons running their censorship operation.
From what I've read, it's all harmful and NSFW content. What else is happening this month? The mandate of tech firms to comply with the UK's Online Safety Act. And while you can now, I suspect soon in the UK, you won't be able to uninstall it for legal reasons.
Sounds like you Brits need to be looking into privacy oriented OSs for phones. Unfortunately their availability is very device dependent.
I knew that Google was blurring photos that I accidentally took of my dick! I didn't know why.
My system is so old thst it can't even run the os required to support that software. Hah! Anachrotech immunity.
Was wondering why I couldn't find it, but then I remembered that I haven't updated this thing since 2021.
[edit] Neverfuckingmind. There it is, the piece of shit.
From what I read from the GrapheneOS developer, this appears to be scanning for harmful or NSFW content on your phone to block it. It seems to have been timed to comply with the UK's Online Safety Act. It is likely that this is Google's attempt to comply with that law but applied worldwide.
Why would online safety involve peoples products and not internet services?
I guess it's because it will affect anything that can be sent or received online. That seems to be the way the SafetyCore app is set-up for.
Uninstalled it for what it's worth. But having a phone is a vector regardless of what's on it sadly.
Phone storage should be used exclusively to hold millions of images of AI-generated ballsacks.
That's what google deserves to get when they harvest user data.