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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

#101

Post by fc417fc802 »

xzxz wrote: post #66
brnt wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are in luck: LineageOS supports many Motorola devices, including the Edge 30.

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.

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

#102

Post by dannyw »

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.

You can now. You couldn't do this in the early versions of iOS.

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

#103

Post by dannyw »

xzxz wrote: post #66
brnt wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are in luck: LineageOS supports many Motorola devices, including the Edge 30.

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.

Honestly LineageOS is probably a more secure root than the typical random android OEM; unless you're dealing with Samsung or Google.

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

#104

Post by password4321 »

Retr0id wrote: post #100

I recently got a Samsung A07 to run some tests on. It's stunningly cheap at After setting it up, I was surprised (but also not surprised) to see ads on the lock screen. The "feature" is called Glance and while it can be disabled in the settings it took me the help of a video tutorial to actually locate the setting.

On my Motorola G Stylus 2025 ($400 MSRP) I have to disable Glance after every reboot (search Glance in Settings then click Disable and Force Stop). Archive/Delete is disabled.

Fuck Glance with all possible fuckery.

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

#105

Post by ux266478 »

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.

Easier said than done in the US. Even of the phones that allow for rooting (which is few and far between these days) you're at the complete mercy of the carrier for whether or not that ability is actually available to you. Even if the gracious lords may allow it, you have to engage in a long and drawn out Byzantine rite just for the privilege. Currently sitting on a Pixel 10 that will not let me have root.

Give me a Linux phone with halfway decent modem drivers, or give me death.

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

#106

Post by codedokode »

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.

1) My phone is not officially supported by LineageOS so I will have to port it first.

2) I did not analyze LineageOS yet and how it is different from stock Android, so I need to go through complete diff.

> If you want a stretch goal try and de-Google yourself

My goal is to have an open source system that is under my full control and doesn't play tricks on my by sending telemetry or collecting forensic databases. Because now I cannot even connect the phone to Internet and it is not as useful as it could be.

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

#107

Post by codedokode »

ux266478 wrote: post #105
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.

Easier said than done in the US. Even of the phones that allow for rooting (which is few and far between these days) you're at the complete mercy of the carrier for whether or not that ability is actually available to you. Even if the gracious lords may allow it, you have to engage in a long and drawn out Byzantine rite just for the privilege. Currently sitting on a Pixel 10 that will not let me have root. Give me a…

If you do not update the phone, chances are high that there is some Linux vulnerability you could expoloit. The privileged vendor software also can have vulnerabilities. For example, here [1] researches hacked the phone with Verified Boot using a boot logo parsing error.

My impression that you should treat your phone as something that can be hacked any moment and not store anything important there.

[1] https://www.sstic.org/media/SSTIC2024/SSTIC-actes/when_vendo...

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

#108

Post by fg137 »

microtonal wrote: post #64
rainforest wrote: post #44

Note that the smart feed "feature" is Taboola-provided adware[0] so it's par for the course. It's beyond comprehension Lenovo would trash the brand by shipping it on flagships. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/motorola/comments/1s61usi/edge_60_p...

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…

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

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

#109

Post by fg137 »

xzxz wrote: post #66
brnt wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are in luck: LineageOS supports many Motorola devices, including the Edge 30.

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.

For Samsung phones, depending when the phone was released, you may be getting security updates months after they are provided by Google.

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

#110

Post by shawn_w »

password4321 wrote: post #104
Retr0id wrote: post #100

I recently got a Samsung A07 to run some tests on. It's stunningly cheap at After setting it up, I was surprised (but also not surprised) to see ads on the lock screen. The "feature" is called Glance and while it can be disabled in the settings it took me the help of a video tutorial to actually locate the setting.

On my Motorola G Stylus 2025 ($400 MSRP) I have to disable Glance after every reboot (search Glance in Settings then click Disable and Force Stop). Archive/Delete is disabled. Fuck Glance with all possible fuckery.

I only had to disable it once on mine, after going crazy for a while trying to figure out what had messed up my lock screen. Haven't had it try to come back once.

Also stopped it from updating automatically in the play store...

Still enough shenanigans to make me go to another brand with my next phone. I always liked Motorola phones for being fairly stock without a lot of bloat ware, but that time seems to be in the past.

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