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Comment by microtonal

8 hours ago

Who outside Apple/Google/Fairphone isn't? Samsung has been shipping the Israeli (IronSource) AppCloud on A series for a while now and people in some regions even spotted it on S-series phones (it'll spy on your usage and install apps). Nothing, which uses clean Android as one of their selling points, started installing something similar (AppServices, presumably also from IronSource given the Aura branding) on various devices.

Between these companies pushing adware/spyware and Apple putting Apple Creator Studio ads in former iWork applications, ads for Apple Intelligence in the system settings, and pushing ads for their F1 movie in Apple Wallet, smartphones have reached the mass enshittification phase.

The only safe havens are Pixel with GrapheneOS and Fairphone with I don't know what exactly (Murena sorta has ads for their own stuff and has many other issues, I guess LineageOS then). Perhaps ironically, given the context, Motorola with GrapheneOS too :).

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microtonal

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fg137  5 hours ago

OneDrive on some Samsung phones recently started uploading user photos on their own, despite user never granting apps the permission to do so:

https://www.reddit.com/r/samsunggalaxy/comments/1t7vqr8/why_...

I am getting tired of all these nonsense.

At this point, Samsung may be shipping more malware than anyone else on phones

  • pndy  2 hours ago

    Some 7 months ago there was this submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45551504 (Microsoft's OneDrive Begins Testing Face-Recognizing AI for Photos (for Some Preview Users)).

    I haven't noticed any further links regarding this topic. Thus I have no idea if setting was fully implemented or abandoned but with this thread here you linked, but I'd rather guess they're full after user's data. And from what users wrote there, MS is not even doing this with some elaborated darkpatterns scenarios but just ordinary stealing these photos. This should be announced louder.

  • microtonal  4 hours ago

    It's sad. Samsung phones with just One UI + Good Lock and without all the crapware would actually be a pretty good phone.

    But as long as consumers continue buying, nothing will ever change.