TL;DR Article claims AppCloud (software in question) has ties to ironSource, an Israeli-founded company now owned by US-based Unity, but never clarifies what those ties are. The author only states that an ironSource tech called "Aura" appears to do something similar to AppCloud. However, the author also points out that AppCloud isn't listed anywhere on ironSource's website. They also acknowledge that there's no evidence currently that AppCloud is doing anything weird. This looks an awful lot like an "Israel bad" article.
Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy
221–230 of 346 posts
Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was wondering why this thankfully hasn't been my experience until you said "carrier locked"... I always buy unlocked. Does that really make a difference?
Yes, the carriers load up the phones with apps that you cannot remove (at least not without rooting the phone). You can usually disable them, but they are still there.
Well dang, that's another good reason to buy unlocked :P
Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree, and that's the exact point I would make. The problem though, is I want a small phone with a headphone jack (and a physical keyboard, but that's orthogonal to the point). Many OEMs sell their flagship as a shiny glass slab with only BT or USB-C for audio, and ship 3.5mm jacks and other "antiquated niceties" like a uSD card reader, on their lower-end models. It's difficult to square the circle of "I want these…
Serendipity happens. Maybe you almost want this https://liliputing.com/zinwa-q27-prototype-brings-classic-bl... Keyboard but it seems no 3.5" jack.
I actually ordered the Q20 revival by the same team back in May or so! Very excited, should ship this week
Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy
#224Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
The war crime is when Hamas and Hezbollah fire rockets indiscriminately into Israel to kill innocent civilians. Any and all means are and will always be justified to prevent that.
Agree that is a war crime. It is also a war crime to carry out what is known as the Nakba - ethnically cleansing and displacing hundreds and thousands of Palestinians. It is a crime illegally occupy land that does not belong to you. It is a crime to maintain an apartheid state. It is a crime to hold 'prisoners' without any charges It is a crime to rape said prisoners. It is also disgusting to have a society that riot…
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Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy
#226I bought an Ipad yesterday. The setup was almost the same, except all the bloat was from Apple itself. Numbers, GarageBand, iMovie, Keynote, Pages, Clips… even the Tips app felt like bloatware. Wild how every ecosystem has its own "preloaded surprise pack."
They are deletable, and frankly, I wouldn't call them bloatware, they are all pretty much decent applications, they don't shove you ads down your throat and a lot of people are happy to use them.
Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
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27 out of 190 countries is far from “international consensus” and does not legitimize attacks on the group in sovereign territory. don’t justify the security hack as legitimate. If Israel penetrated a security perimeter of a group that breach becomes a threat to all people everywhere
Hezoballah group itself defies the Lebanese government and the Lebanese sovereignty
Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
The more relevant question is, which Israeli companies are currently not involved in covert military operations? The difficulty in comprehending an answer to this question is precisely why allowing ones military to perform such actions using covert means is so dangerous for a civilian population to support. War is supposed to be fought in the open in order to protect the civilians. I suppose when the distinction betw…
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The question is a straw man fallacy in an attempt to distract from the fact that Shin Bet/Mossad, both Israeli organizations, used multiple company cutouts to weaponize the supply chain of civilian infrastructure in order to commit acts of perfidy in violation of the Geneva Convention.. of course they’re not going to set up “SababaTech”, headquartered in Tel Aviv, to do this dirty work. The perfidious nature of this act required them to involve Hungary, among other nations.
Where the question “which Israeli companies are involved in committing Israels war crimes?” needs to be answered, is at the ICC - not here on HN.
(Unless the question is being answered by a whistleblower, of course..)
Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy
#229What’s striking is how often these ‘small’ surveillance tech stories trace back to the same state-aligned ecosystem. When Israel does it, it’s treated as a complex security issue. When another ‘bad’ country does the same thing, we immediately call it espionage. And almost on cue, the discussion drifts anywhere except the uncomfortable fact that it’s the same ecosystem from the same country showing up again.
When Israel does what, in this case? Write software?
Spyware*