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submitted 4 days ago by ad_on_is@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

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.”

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[-] kattfisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 31 points 3 days ago

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

[-] desktop_user 5 points 3 days ago

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.

[-] kattfisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago

No, that wouldn't make much difference. I don't think I've seen a real world attack via SMS that even bothered to "forge" the from-field. People are used to getting texts from unknown numbers.

And how would you possibly implement this supposed "caller-id" for a field that doesn't even have to be set to a number?

[-] desktop_user 0 points 2 days ago

caller id is the thing that tells you the number. it isn't cheap to forge, but it's the only way a scan could reasonably effect anyone with more than half a brain. there is never a reason to send information to an unknown SMS number, or click on a link from a text message from an unknown number.

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this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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