Google’s ‘Secret’ Update Scans All Your Photos
Google’s ‘Secret’ Update Scans All Your Photos
AI now monitors your photos without warning.
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.”
I didn't see it anywhere on my phone but ill look into it more after work. Thanks for the heads up.
Google says that SafetyCore “provides on-device infrastructure for securely and privately performing classification to help users detect unwanted content
Cheers Google but I'm a capable adult, and able to do this myself.
Thnx for this, just uninstalled it, google are arseholes
Per one tech forum this week
Stop spreading misinformation.
To quote the most salient post
The app doesn't provide client-side scanning used to report things to Google or anyone else. It provides on-device machine learning models usable by applications to classify content as being spam, scams, malware, etc. This allows apps to check content locally without sharing it with a service and mark it with warnings for users.
Which is a sorely needed feature to tackle problems like SMS scams
if the cellular carriers were forced to verify that caller-ID (or SMS equivalent) was accurate SMS scams would disappear (or at least be weaker). Google shouldn't have to do the job of the carriers, and if they wanted to implement this anyway they should let the user choose what service they want to perform the task similar to how they let the user choose which "Android system WebView" should be used.
You don't need advanced scanning technology running on every device with access to every single bit of data you ever seen to detect scam. You need telco operator to stop forwarding forged messages headers and… that's it. Cheap, efficient, zero risk related to invasion of privacy through a piece of software you did not need but was put there "for your own good".
If the app did what op is claiming then the EU would have a field day fining google.
graphene folks have a real love for the word misinformation (and FUD, and brigading). That's not you under there👻, Daniel, is it?
After 5 years of his
anticshateful bullshit lies, I think I can genuinely say that word triggers me.And what exactly does that have to do with GrapheneOS?
Have you even read the article you posted? It mentions these posts by GrapheneOS
Please, read the links. They are the security and privacy experts when it comes to Android. That's their explanation of what this Android System SafetyCore actually is.
People don't seem to understand the risks presented by normalizing client-side scanning on closed source devices. Think about how image recognition works. It scans image content locally and matches to keywords or tags, describing the person, objects, emotions, and other characteristics. Even the rudimentary open-source model on an immich deployment on a Raspberry Pi can process thousands of images and make all the contents searchable with alarming speed and accuracy.
So once similar image analysis is done on a phone locally, and pre-encryption, it is trivial for Apple or Google to use that for whatever purposes their use terms allow. Forget the iCloud encryption backdoor. The big tech players can already scan content on your device pre-encryption.
And just because someone does a traffic analysis of the process itself (safety core or mediaanalysisd or whatever) and shows it doesn't directly phone home, doesn't mean it is safe. The entire OS is closed source, and it needs only to backchannel small amounts of data in order to fuck you over.
Remember the original justification for clientside scanning from Apple was "detecting CSAM". Well they backed away from that line of thinking but they kept all the client side scanning in iOS and Mac OS. It would be trivial for them to flag many other types of content and furnish that data to governments or third parties.
laughs in GrapheneOS
I didn't have it in my app drawer but once I went to this link, it showed as installed. I un-installed it ASAP.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.safetycore&hl=en-US
I also reported it as hostile and inappropriate. I am sure Google will do fuck all with that report but I enjoy being petty sometimes
thank you for posting this. it's not yet installed on my phone for some reason, but i will be checking this page every couple days to make sure it stays that way.
More information: It's been rolling out to Android 9+ users since November 2024 as a high priority update. Some users are reporting it installs when on battery and off wifi, unlike most apps.
App description on Play store: SafetyCore is a Google system service for Android 9+ devices. It provides the underlying technology for features like the upcoming Sensitive Content Warnings feature in Google Messages that helps users protect themselves when receiving potentially unwanted content. While SafetyCore started rolling out last year, the Sensitive Content Warnings feature in Google Messages is a separate, optional feature and will begin its gradual rollout in 2025. The processing for the Sensitive Content Warnings feature is done on-device and all of the images or specific results and warnings are private to the user.
Description by google Sensitive Content Warnings is an optional feature that blurs images that may contain nudity before viewing, and then prompts with a “speed bump” that contains help-finding resources and options, including to view the content. When the feature is enabled, and an image that may contain nudity is about to be sent or forwarded, it also provides a speed bump to remind users of the risks of sending nude imagery and preventing accidental shares. - https://9to5google.com/android-safetycore-app-what-is-it/
So looks like something that sends pictures from your messages (at least initially) to Google for an AI to check whether they're "sensitive". The app is 44mb, so too small to contain a useful ai and I don't think this could happen on-phone, so it must require sending your on-phone data to Google?
I guess the app then downloads the required models
Thanks. Just uninstalled. What a cunts
Do we have any proof of it doing anything bad?
Taking Google's description of what it is it seems like a good thing. Of course we should absolutely assume Google is lying and it actually does something nefarious, but we should get some proof before picking up the pitchforks.
I uninstalled it, and a couple of days later, it reappeared on my phone.
The countdown to Android's slow and painful death is already ticking for a while.
It has become over-engineered and no longer appealing from a developer's viewpoint.
I still write code for Android because my customers need it - will be needing for a while - but I've stopped writng code for Apple's i-things and I research alternatives for Android. Rolling my own environment with FOSS components on top of Raspbian looks feasible already. On robots and automation, I already use it.
What's over engineered about it?
In my experience, the API has iteratively made it ever harder for applications to automatically perform previously easy jobs, and jobs which are trivial under ordinary Linux (e.g. become an access point, set the SSID, set the IP address, set the PSK, start a VPN connection, go into monitor / inject mode, access an USB device, write files to a directory of your choice, install an APK). Now there's a literal thicket of API calls and declarations to make, before you can do some of these things (and some are forever gone).
The obvious reason is that Google tries to protect a billion inexperienced people from scammers and malware.
But it kills the ability to do non-standard things, and the concept of your device being your own.
And a big problem is that so many apps rely on advertising for its income stream. Spying a little has been legitimized and turned into a business under Android. To maintain control, the operating system then has to be restrictive of apps. Which pisses off developers who have a trusting relationship with their customer and want their apps to have freedom to operate.
Thanks for bringing this up, first I've heard of it. Not present on my GrapheneOS pixel, present on stock.
I suppose I should encourage pixel owners to switch from stock to graphene, I know which decide I rather spend time using. GrapheneOS one of course.
I'm traumatized by trying to use banking apps on lineage.. don't think I'll risk it until I get a backup phone
I've got a Pixel 8 Pro and I'm currently using the stock OS. Anything in particular that you miss with Graphene OS?
I switched from a Samsung to a Pixel a couple years ago. I instantly installed GrapheneOS and have loved it ever since. It generally works perfectly normally with the huge background benefit of security and privacy. The only issues I have had is one of my banking apps doesn’t work (but the others work fine) and lack of RCS (but I’m sure it’s coming). In short, highly highly recommend. I will be sticking with GOS for the long term!
I've looked into it.l briefly. Did you have any issues switching? I'm concerned about how some apps I need would function.
I switched from a Samsung to a Pixel a couple years ago. I instantly installed GrapheneOS and have loved it ever since. It generally works perfectly normally with the huge background benefit of security and privacy. The only issues I have had is one of my banking apps doesn't work (but the others work fine) and lack of RCS (but I'm sure it's coming). In short, highly highly recommend. I will be sticking with GOS for the long term!
I did a fair amount of research before the switch to find alternatives to Google services, some I've replaced, others I felt were too much of a hassle for my phone usage.
I've kept my original pixel stock, the hardest part about switching this one over was plugging it in and following the instructions.
I'm hoping to get rid of my stock OS pixel soon, it would appear my bank hasn't blocked it's app on Graphene, unlike Uber.
For the rest I'll either buy a cheap af shitbox to use purely for banking and Uber (if it comes to that).
If you've any other questions I'm happy to help find then answers with you, feel free to DM me.
I switched over to GrapheneOS a couple months ago and couldn't be happier. If you have a Pixel the switch is really easy. The biggest obstacle was exporting my contacts from my google account.
GrapheneOS — an Android security developer — provides some comfort, that SafetyCore “doesn’t provide client-side scanning used to report things to Google or anyone else. It provides on-device machine learning models usable by applications to classify content as being spam, scams, malware, etc. This allows apps to check content locally without sharing it with a service and mark it with warnings for users.”
LineageOS is amazing as well. Especially since it covers many devices
Well then I hope they like seeing my butthole.
My older brother swipes through your phone's photos without asking, so I put some colonoscopy pictures in there. He hasn't tried to look at photos on my phone since.
Oh Google what have you done to yourself.
Great, it'll have to plow through ~30GB of 1080p recordings of darkness and my upstairs neighbors living it up in the AMs. And nothing else.
SafetyCore Placeholder so if it ever tries to reinstall itself it will fail due to signature mismatch.
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?
Click on the "releases" link
Wow that's actually genius thank you
Amazing, thank you. I have uninstalled this bs twice now and have so far been spared by another force install. I hope this works
Thank you for sharing!
And what exactly does the github App do?
Is suppose it's not the same as the Google App?
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.
I just un-installed it
Anyone know what Android System Intelligence does? Should that be un-installed as well?
Jesus Christ they're like bed bugs
Is it too much to ask that my phone only contain the shit that makes it work, and not anything else?
Its a classic example of using "BUT THE CHILDREN" to be invasive dickheads.
And it immediately reminds me of the story of the guy whose kid had a rash in the diaper area during covid, and the pediatrician requested pictures to remotely diagnose and treat, which google flagged as child pornography and called the cops on him, and banned/locked him out of everything (phone number, emails, pictures, etc etc) because he had everything on google.
and no amount of the police, or even doctor, insisting the pictures were medical necessity and not child pornography would convince google to restore his acount or even let him recover his number/email/pictures/etc.
You can safely uninstall System Intelligence if you don't need it. My phone has worked fine without it in the past year.
First result of DDG search, explains it quite well: https://www.androidauthority.com/android-system-intelligence-3325187/
I'm not seeing it on my S22, but I am seeing system intelligence. What is it?
Fuck these cunt
Gimme Linux phone, I’m ready for it.
The Firefox Phone should've been a real contender. I just want a browser in my pocket that takes good pictures and plays podcasts.
I just gave up and pre-ordered the Light Phone 3. Anytime I truly need a mobile app, I can just use an old iPhone and a WiFi connection.
if there was something that could run android apps virtualized, I'd switch in a heartbeat
Every one of them can, AFAIK. I have a second cheap used phone I picked up to play with Ubuntu Touch and it has a system called Waydroid for this. Not quite seamless and you'll want to use native when possible but it does work.
SailfishOS, PostmarketOS, Mobian, etc all also can use Waydroid or a similar thing
There are two solutions for that. One is Waydroid, which is basically what you're describing. Another is android_translation_layer, which is closer to WINE in that it translates API calls to more native Linux ones, although that project is still in the alpha stages.
You can try both on desktop Linux if you'd like. Just don't expect to run apps that require passing SafetyNet, like many banking apps.
I have used Waydroid, mainly with FOSS apps, and although it has some rough edges, it does often work for just having one or two Android apps functionality.
Linux on mobile as a whole isn't daily driver ready yet in my opinion. I've only tried pmOS on a OP6, but that seems to be a leading project on a well-supported phone (compared to the rest).
The app can be found here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.safetycore
The app reviews are a good read.
Apparently I'm a beta tester for it, don't recall signing up for beta tests with it
Smartest Google Defender
broken english too, probably from a paid indian reviewer.
Thanks for the link, this is impressive because this really has all the trait of spyware; apparently it installs without asking for permission ?
Yup, heard about it a week or two ago. Found it installed on my Samsung phone, it never asked for permissions or gave any info that it was added to my phone.
yea i found it as soon as this article said it was on your phone spying on you, ALSO many people, like myself noticed the battery draining pretty fast too, this is probalby the cause, if it installs without your knowledge, i doubt the app is excluded from your "app battery usage logs to, like it doesnt show up how much power its using.
Thanks. Uninstalled. Not that it matters, they already got what they wanted from me most likely.
Apparently I'm a beta tester? How, what? Thanks for the link!
The 5 star reviews are whack
Hope they like all my dick pics
Don't worry they won't!
/Burn
Thank you was able to find and uninstall the app with no issues
Samsung? I was able to on my s23ultra
Google says that SafetyCore “provides on-device infrastructure for securely and privately performing classification to help users detect unwanted content. Users control SafetyCore, and SafetyCore only classifies specific content when an app requests it through an optionally enabled feature.”
GrapheneOS — an Android security developer — provides some comfort, that SafetyCore “doesn’t provide client-side scanning used to report things to Google or anyone else. It provides on-device machine learning models usable by applications to classify content as being spam, scams, malware, etc. This allows apps to check content locally without sharing it with a service and mark it with warnings for users.”
But GrapheneOS also points out that “it’s unfortunate that it’s not open source and released as part of the Android Open Source Project and the models also aren’t open let alone open source… We’d have no problem with having local neural network features for users, but they’d have to be open source.” Which gets to transparency again.
Graphene could easily allow for open source solutions to emulate the SafetyCore interface. Like how it handles Google's location services.
There's plenty of open source libraries and models for running local AI, seems like this is something that could be easily replicated in the FOSS world.
For people who have not read the article:
Forbes states that there is no indication that this app can or will "phone home".
Its stated use is for other apps to scan an image they have access to find out what kind of thing it is (known as "classification"). For example, to find out if the picture you've been sent is a dick-pick so the app can blur it.
My understanding is that, if this is implemented correctly (a big 'if') this can be completely safe.
Apps requesting classification could be limited to only classifying files that they already have access to. Remember that android has a concept of "scoped storage" nowadays that let you restrict folder access. If this is the case, well it's no less safe than not having SafetyCore at all. It just saves you space as companies like Signal, WhatsApp etc. no longer need to train and ship their own machine learning models inside their apps, as it becomes a common library / API any app can use.
It could, of course, if implemented incorrectly, allow apps to snoop without asking for file access. I don't know enough to say.
Besides, you think that Google isn't already scanning for things like CSAM? It's been confirmed to be done on platforms like Google Photos well before SafetyCore was introduced, though I've not seen anything about it being done on devices yet (correct me if I'm wrong).
Issue is, a certain cult (christian dominionists), with the help of many billionaires (including Muskrat) have installed a fucking dictator in the USA, who are doing their vow to "save every soul on Earth from hell". If you get a porn ban, it'll phone not only home, but directly to the FBI's new "moral police" unit.
the police of vice and virtue, just like SA has.
Doing the scanning on-device doesn't mean that the findings cannot be reported further. I don't want others going thru my private stuff without asking - not even machine learning.
This is EXACTLY what Apple tried to do with their on-device CSAM detection, it had a ridiculous amount of safeties to protect people’s privacy and still it got shouted down
I’m interested in seeing what happens when Holy Google, for which most nerds have a blind spot, does the exact same thing
EDIT: from looking at the downvotes, it really seems that Google can do no wrong 😆 And Apple is always the bad guy in lemmy
I have 5 kids. I'm almost certain my photo library of 15 years has a few completely innocent pictures where a naked infant/toddler might be present. I do not have the time to search 10,000+ pics for material that could be taken completely out of context and reported to authorities without my knowledge. Plus, I have quite a few "intimate" photos of my wife in there as well.
I refuse to consent to a corporation searching through my device on the basis of "well just in case", as the ramifications of false positives can absolutely destroy someone's life. The unfortunate truth is that "for your security" is a farce, and people who are actually stupid enough to intentionally create that kind of material are gonna find ways to do it regardless of what the law says.
Scanning everyone's devices is a gross overreach and, given the way I've seen Google and other large corporations handle reports of actually-offensive material (i.e. they do fuck-all), I have serious doubts over the effectiveness of this program.
Google did end up doing exactly that, and what happened was, predictably, people were falsely accused of child abuse and CSAM.
Overall, I think this needs to be done by a neutral 3rd party. I just have no idea how such a 3rd party could stay neutral. Some with social media content moderation.
It didn't appear in my apps list so I thought it wasn't installed. But when I searched for the app name it appears. So be aware.
Even with the latest update from Samsung, I am not seeing this app. My OnePlus did get it with the February update and I had to remove it.
I'm on an ASUS and it didn't appear in my app list, but when I searched in my settings list it did. So maybe it's something similar for you.
Could be for certain markets only. I don´t have it either.
I see it on my S25 Ultra.
I'd that what's killing my fucking battery like crazy lately?
Now that you say that, my battery was draining fast the past couple of weeks. It would last maybe a day. It lasts 2 days again now.
same here, i was wondering why my Op12r was draining like super fast, for a phone touthing 2+days battery(and im not even playing games or videos on it), yet it was draining as fast as an old pixel phone.
Seems to be innocuous, but there's no harm in removing it. Next update, it'll be returned, so the better solution long-term will be (if you're rooted) is to use an application to freeze it, which effectively disables it and it should survive and update. If you delete the app, a new update will put it back.
Jokes on you my phone is so old it hasn't updated in 4 years
Who would have thought the best security practice would turn out to be having devices too old to be updated with spyware? No jokes
I don't see it on the app store to remove anymore
You can't search for it. You have to open a direct link.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.safetycore
Is there any indication that Apple is truly more secure and privacy conscious over Android? Im kinda tired of Google and their oversteps.
For true privacy you'll want something like GrapheneOS on a Pixel, with no Google apps or anything. Some other ROM with no gApps as a second choice.
Other than that, Apple SEEMS to be mildly better. I'll give you an example: Apple pulls encryption feature from UK over government spying demands
While it's a bad thing that they pull the encryption feature, it's a good sign - they either aren't willing or able to add a backdoor for the UK security services. Then there was this case. If the article is to be believed, they started working on security as of iOS 8 so they could no longer comply with government requests. Today we're on iOS 18.
Apple claims their advertising ID is anonymized so third party apps don't know who you are. That said, they still have the advertising ID service so Apple themselves do know a whoooooole lot about you - but this is the same with Google.
Then regarding photo scanning - Apple received a LOT of backlash for their proposed photo scanning feature. But it was going to be only on-device scans on photos that were going to be uploaded to iCloud (so disabling iCloud would disable it too) and it was only going to report you if you had a LOT of child pornography on your phone - otherwise it was, supposedly, going to do absolutely nothing about the photos. It wasn't even supposed to be a categorization model, just a "Does this match known CSAM?" filter. Google and Microsoft had already implemented something similar, except they didn't scan your shit on-device.
At the end of the day, Apple might be a bit more private, but it's a wash. It's not transparent and neither is Google. I like using their devices. Sometimes I miss the freedom of custom ROMs, but my damn banking apps stopped working on Lineage and I couldn't be arsed to start using the banks' mobile websites again like I'd done in the past. So I moved to iOS, as Oneplus had completely botched their Android experience in the meantime while I'd been using Lineage so I was kinda pissed at what I had considered one of the last remaining decent Android manufacturers (Sonys are overpriced and I will never own a Samsung, I hate them, I didn't like my Huawei or Xiaomi much either).
So if you want to run custom ROMs, get a Pixel or something. If not, Apple is as good a choice as Android. A couple of years ago it was the better choice even, as you'd get longer software support, but now the others have started catching up due to all the consumer outrage.
Thanks for the detailed reply dude. This is so thorough.
The short answer is: Apple collects much of the same data as any other modern tech composite, but their "walled garden" strategy means that for the most part only THEY have access to that info.
It's technically lower risk since fewer parties have access to the data, but philosophically just about equally as bad because they aren't doing this out of any real love for privacy (despite what their marketing department might claim)
True or not, one can avoid the whole issue by using your phone as a phone, maybe to send texts, with location, mike, and camera switched off permanently, and all the other apps deleted or disabled. Sure, Google will still know you called your SO daily and your Mom once a week (NOT ENOUGH!), and that you were supposed to pick up the dry cleaning last night (did you?). Meh. If that's what floats the Surveillance Society's boat, I am not too worried.
People can go further than that and install a ROM for their phone that doesn't have any Google apps on it. People can even use applications that normally require Google Play Services by using microG, which spoofs things. You can also root your phone with Magisk and use apps to block anything leaking anything else.
For those that have issues on Samsung devices: see here if you're getting the "App not installed as package conflicts with an existing package" error :
If you have a Samsung device - uninstall the app also from Knox Secure Folder. Entering to Secure Folder>Settings>Apps
Jesus thanks for posting this. Found it on my LG ThinQ.
Anyone have a fairphone? Thoughts about it?
I've just given it the boot from my phone.
It doesn't appear to have been doing anything yet, but whatever.
Yeah no issues here just uninstalling. It hasn't come back.
My question is, does it install as a stand alone app? Or is it part of a Google Play update chunk that you only find out after Play has updated? My system does not auto update (by design) so I'd like to know where it sources from.
i have system updates disabled and still found this piece of shit installed.
I went to it on the Okay Store and uninstalled it. It didn't commission and so far all phone functionality is working funny. It seems like an addon that's not tightly bound to core OS components.
Kind of weird that they are installing this dependency whether you will enable those planned scanning features or not. Here is an article mentioning that future feature Sensitive Content Warnings. It does sound kind of cool, less chance to accidentally send your dick pic to someone I guess.
Sensitive Content Warnings is an optional feature that blurs images that may contain nudity before viewing, and then prompts with a “speed bump” that contains help-finding resources and options, including to view the content. When the feature is enabled, and an image that may contain nudity is about to be sent or forwarded, it also provides a speed bump to remind users of the risks of sending nude imagery and preventing accidental shares.
All of this happens on-device to protect your privacy and keep end-to-end encrypted message content private to only sender and recipient. Sensitive Content Warnings doesn’t allow Google access to the contents of your images, nor does Google know that nudity may have been detected. This feature is opt-in for adults, managed via Android Settings, and is opt-out for users under 18 years of age.
Looks like more of a chance of false positives happening and getting the police to raid your home to confiscate your devices. I don't care what the article says I know Google is getting access to that data because that's who they are.
Just for verifying accuracy and improving the product.
And interestingly enough my phone crapped out on this post. But at least I was still able to read the the post.
Don't use Google Play. Prefer Obtanium, F-Droid or Aurora Store.
Interestingly I don't have it on my stock samsung phone. I haven't updated it since oneui 6. Is safetycore installed by update or by GMS?
What a pile of fuck.
What about the "Android System Intelligence" app that someone else mentioned here? I just realized I have that one. It sounds like it has the capabilities to spy and maybe even more.
Here's a link to it in PlayStore. It mentions some of the features it is a dependency for.
I saw that, that's what I meant by "it sounds like it has the capabilities to spy", something that can do all those things must have lots of access and could provide perfect cover for any number of undesirable processes.
an app on all Android
not my android :)
BTW did anyone reverse engineer it? Or doing rn (I'm HTH)?
Dood they scanned all my furry porn
Not on mine, it doesn't. I don't use the Play Store. I don't have Google Play Services. And I don't have Google Apps installed. And I'm running Lineage OS. So, fuck you Google.
Google harvesting all your data for profits. I’m shocked. Shocked I say.
Samsung lets me uninstall it now problem.
Thanks for posting, I just uninstalled
Huh. My device seems to have been skipped? I don't do anything special, I'm using Play Store and Play Services, and I'm up to date, but it's not showing up in my settings app list
Pixel 7a here, it was installed and I have no idea when
Sometimes it uses a different name I have noticed, try to see if something with a similar is listed
i havent had it yet either. only suspicious thing that i notice is some android system intelligence, but that has been there for a while now. i havent dared to uninstall/deactivate it yet since i dont know if anything critical is dependent on it. havent even noticed any suspicious network activity either on rethink, beyond the usual bullshit like some uninstalled application still trying to connect to google as "unknown".
Basically, ot scans all files and shit like an antivirus does on windows? Oks
No, antivirus software only looks for matches with known malware and exploits.
So, kinda like a free malware software that just scans without doing anything to solve the problem
Seriously…. Why do people continue to buy their products? They’re seemingly one of the most invasive security risks one could be involved with.
why, what do you recommend?
I mean you have just disclaime the whole android ecosystem, and the only other alternative is Apple, which is questionable if it's better.
and this would have even applied to my fairphone!
would have, if I didn't get rid of google services the day I got it.I don’t have to recommend anything just because I’m asking why people are buying spyware tech.
Just like I may not know the proper way to safely jump out of an airplane, but I do know a parachute is involved.
A person asking why people do a thing that seems stupid isn’t obligated to solve the problem.
Most people don't really know what that actually means, and they don't feel they have anything to hide from some nebulous corporate entity.
There's this, and another weather app. Uninstall both asap
Why are you linking to a known Nazi website?
Because that's where I got the info from first? Grow up
Can you share a summary or a screenshot to make it more accessible please?
....this link is about Safety core. Which weather app?
There's another one mentioned in the comments
Google photos has been "searchable by name" for years now. Tell it the name of a face in one photo and it can go search (pretty successfully) through all your photos for other photos containing that person. And, of course, once told, it never forgets.
Is it still a service when you are the product? Or, are you being served? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Serve_Man_(The_Twilight_Zone)
This is the stupidest shit, moral panic levels of miscomprehension. I mean, I was miffed and promptly removed safetycore because I don't mind seeing sex organs and don't want shit using battery for no reason, but wow
Forbes.Edit: ok, the article is not so bad, just the shitty blurb from some forum reproduced here on Lemmy.
