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Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

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Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#121

Post by bushwart »

phoronixrly wrote: post #93
sandreas wrote: post #28

Hmm, this thread and the reports of shady practices make me wonder if this will affect the partnership with GrapheneOS[1]. It seems that such things shouldn't really happen on a device where security is a top priority, whether intentional or not. 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47214645

I was just wondering that... GrapheneOS team consider Fairphone to be infosec plebs, but instead partner with a company that intentionally harms users' privacy for profit?

I don't see how the former has anything to do with the latter.

Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#122

Post by GuB-42 »

pitkali wrote: post #97
microtonal wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can understand it's hard to defend against plausibly deniable errors that create backdoors, etc. But this would show a complete lack of code review, no?

Code review just means you need an accomplice. It makes it harder, not impossible.

Or be convincing to a LLM.

Humans reading code is so "legacy"...

Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#123

Post by brightbeige »

londons_explore wrote: post #26
kayson wrote: post #10

> In further digging, we noticed that the URL the phone opens up is “kira-abboud.com,” a website that references fashion influencer “@kirasfashionfinds.” Notably, this exact URL isn’t listed anywhere on Abboud’s social media, and the affiliate codes don’t match up either. The redirect coming from Motorola phones is using Amazona affiliate code “sramz-kff-008-20” which is completely different from any of the codes we…

My guess is a rogue employee who hopes they can get away with this stuff for years till caught... That employees cousin probably does social media for Abboud...

How about a rogue AI agent banking some cash for the uprising? Are we there yet?!

Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#124

Post by Larrikin »

tomaytotomato wrote: post #85
codedokode wrote: post #76

Think how bad the market got. Today we have preinstalled garbage apps like LinkedIn, garbage apps mandated to be preinstalled by the government, ads, cloud accounts, notifications spam, telemetry. This is not only Chinese smartphones, for example Samsung also plays this game. I assume there are Chinese backdoors, American backdoors and national government backdoors on almost every phone. And there seems to be no way…

The paranoia is completely warranted, but there is a solution. Just root your Android phone and put a custom ROM like LineageOS etc If you want a stretch goal try and de-Google yourself, I have tried but failed twice now.

I recently spent twenty minutes sitting outside of an MLB stadium because MLB decided they needed the same level of play protection as a foreign banking app and it refused to work on my friend's LineageOS phone.

We only got in by installing the app on my Sony and him signing into his account. They charge a fee now to get paper tickets from the box office.

Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#125

Post by merryocha »

tomaytotomato wrote: post #85
codedokode wrote: post #76

Think how bad the market got. Today we have preinstalled garbage apps like LinkedIn, garbage apps mandated to be preinstalled by the government, ads, cloud accounts, notifications spam, telemetry. This is not only Chinese smartphones, for example Samsung also plays this game. I assume there are Chinese backdoors, American backdoors and national government backdoors on almost every phone. And there seems to be no way…

The paranoia is completely warranted, but there is a solution. Just root your Android phone and put a custom ROM like LineageOS etc If you want a stretch goal try and de-Google yourself, I have tried but failed twice now.

My biggest obstacle to de-Googling is the GBoard keyboard of all things. There's really no good open source alternative that even comes close.

Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#126

Post by sjamaan »

bushwart wrote: post #119
catlikesshrimp wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Seriously, get a Pixel and install..." Ah, the Google tax. They can turn the lock of that door (bootloader) when they choose to do so.

But they haven't yet, and if you refuse to give Google money directly there's always the secondhand market.

You'd still be walking around as a free advertiser for their stuff, simply by owning Google-branded hardware. And of course the hypocrisy of having a Google phone to avoid Google spying is palpable.

Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#127

Post by zamadatix »

mitchell209 wrote: post #99
embedding-shape wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what timescale you're referring to when you're talking about "how bad the market got" and "today", but back around 2012 I got my first and last Samsung smartphone, must have been a Galaxy 3 or something, that had all of those problematic things too. It seems like this starting to happen as soon as apps were installable on phones, even iPhones came (and still comes) with a ton of apps you cannot remove regard…

You can delete almost all apps on iOS except the obviously core apps that are necessary for it to function.

Thanks to the EU! They really fixed a lot of things about the iPhone, a shame not every fix went everywhere like core app removals did though.

Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#128

Post by xzxz »

fc417fc802 wrote: post #101
xzxz wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the past I often tend to replace stock Android with LineageOS but in today's world with so many attack vectors like for example malware in supply chains etc. I choose to stay with stock OS. I also have my bank apps and lot of my clients data/credentials stored on my accounts.

How do you imagine that protects you? If anything I'm inclined to trust the LineageOS supply chain more than the OEM on account of being a smaller target, having less bloat, and being 100% open from start to finish. For a particularly sensitive context I'd want to build the ROM myself on an appropriately secured machine running one of the major distros.

Financial apps like banking ones sometimes refuse to work on rooted phones and you have to follow if you want to run them.

I just have no time and knowledge to build ROM myself. 100% open projects also suffer supply chain attacks.

Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#129

Post by beepboopboop »

Larrikin wrote: post #124
tomaytotomato wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The paranoia is completely warranted, but there is a solution. Just root your Android phone and put a custom ROM like LineageOS etc If you want a stretch goal try and de-Google yourself, I have tried but failed twice now.

I recently spent twenty minutes sitting outside of an MLB stadium because MLB decided they needed the same level of play protection as a foreign banking app and it refused to work on my friend's LineageOS phone. We only got in by installing the app on my Sony and him signing into his account. They charge a fee now to get paper tickets from the box office.

Brutal. I had a similarly annoying experience recently, where in order to enter my local big arena for a concert, the TicketMaster app was not enough. I had to step out of the entrance line to download the _arena-specific_ TicketMaster app to access my tickets. I hate the ticket systems that dominate the market, we deserve better.

Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#130

Post by Hizonner »

Larrikin wrote: post #124
tomaytotomato wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The paranoia is completely warranted, but there is a solution. Just root your Android phone and put a custom ROM like LineageOS etc If you want a stretch goal try and de-Google yourself, I have tried but failed twice now.

I recently spent twenty minutes sitting outside of an MLB stadium because MLB decided they needed the same level of play protection as a foreign banking app and it refused to work on my friend's LineageOS phone. We only got in by installing the app on my Sony and him signing into his account. They charge a fee now to get paper tickets from the box office.

... and you continue to let them abuse you.
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