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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

#181

Post by phoronixrly »

bushwart wrote: post #180
phoronixrly wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't see how it doesn't make sense for Graphene to reject a company because it doesn't handle security according to their standards, but be OK with a company that is actively malicious?

What matters is whether or not a particular device meets the GOS hardware requirements, anything else is secondary. It's not that complicated

They announced a partnership with Motorola. They are not just making an OS for their devices, they are partnering with them. There is a fundamental difference between taking a device and making an OS for it, and partnering with its manufacturer. The latter leads to the assumption that Graphene condones Motorola's security practices, and Motorola condones Graphene producing an OS for their devices. The former does not.

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

#182

Post by wang_li »

givinguflac wrote: post #163
wang_li wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't remove the Phone app from an iPad in iPadOS 26. Even when the iPad in question has no cellular functionality. The best you can do is remove the icon, but you get a dialog telling you it won't be removed. Which is stupid as I don't want my iPad to be getting every voice mail and imessage and so on that my phone does. They are different devices and serve different purposes. My iPad is totally a media consumpt…

I own both devices, and I turn phone call and text forwarding off in settings on my phone, and shut down iMessage on the iPad. Pretty easy.

You're not my tech support person so I'm not going to get into it deeply, but I don't mean the phone option of "Calls on Other Devices" (which is off on my phone) or the Messages option of "Text Message Forwarding" (which only has my Macs listed.) I mean that whenever I get a voice mail on a call it shows up as an alert on my iPad and Messages receives copies of various text messages, I think via iCloud as this happens when my iPad is at home and I am miles away with my phone at the office.

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

#183

Post by everyday7732 »

merryocha wrote: post #125
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.

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.

Heliboard is an option. No gesture typing out of the box but you can install an external library for that and it works good.

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

#184

Post by ezekiel68 »

GuestFAUniverse wrote: post #53
londons_explore wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

No matter how you turn it, that doesn't build trust in the Motorola brand, if a single employee can push that (hypothetical) code.

If I'm not guilty until proven innocent, then neither is Motorola.

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

#186

Post by ysnp »

phoronixrly wrote: post #181
bushwart wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What matters is whether or not a particular device meets the GOS hardware requirements, anything else is secondary. It's not that complicated

They announced a partnership with Motorola. They are not just making an OS for their devices, they are partnering with them. There is a fundamental difference between taking a device and making an OS for it, and partnering with its manufacturer . The latter leads to the assumption that Graphene condones Motorola's security practices, and Motorola condones Graphene producing an OS for their devices. The former does no…

The details of the partnership are mostly disclosed in the joint announcements but GrapheneOS has no say or influence on Motorola's stock Android image and policy.

The main objective of the partnership is to do what you described in the former case, get Motorola up to a standard where GraphenOS could support the phone. They could not previously take a Motorola phone and build GrapheneOS for it because of numerous basic requirements they did not yet meet. I can guess that GrapheneOS only really condone the efforts Motorola will put in to meet their support requirements as a platform.

Motorola also gets to incorporate a subset of GrapheneOS's features and improvements as enterprise targeted Motorola features. GrapheneOS do not have any direct influence over the apps and policies for the stock GMS Android image Motorola ship with their phones. Motorola have no significant say in what GrapheneOS does with their OS. GrapheneOS can assist Motorola in hardening efforts at the OS and firmware layer etc.

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

#187

Post by ysnp »

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?

It may be worth noting that GrapheneOS in most cases to date are not the initiators for conversations around extra device support. They do not control which mobile divisions and engineering teams can come to them and back genuine interest with the resources needed to reach an acceptable privacy/security standard for support.

The question is really why are Motorola the only ones that have gone that extra mile so far and what does it say about the rest of the Android OEMs (including Fairphone, which unlike most is actually a younger project than GrapheneOS).

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

#188

Post by unethical_ban »

phoronixrly wrote: post #181
bushwart wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What matters is whether or not a particular device meets the GOS hardware requirements, anything else is secondary. It's not that complicated

They announced a partnership with Motorola. They are not just making an OS for their devices, they are partnering with them. There is a fundamental difference between taking a device and making an OS for it, and partnering with its manufacturer . The latter leads to the assumption that Graphene condones Motorola's security practices, and Motorola condones Graphene producing an OS for their devices. The former does no…

Motorola supplies hardware. GrapheneOS supplies software.

The entire premise of GrapheneOS is total control of the device. There is no way they would release a Motorola phone with GrapheneOS installed, but with unremovable bloatware.

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

#189

Post by robotnikman »

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…

Sony as far as I know is not shipping additional adware on their phones.

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

#190

Post by ofieiehdiehe »

Larrikin wrote: post #155
skinfaxi wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't give your money to these places? HSBC won't let me use my rooted phone either, so guess who lost my business?

Next time we will go to the professional baseball stadium across the street instead.

You can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you want this stop, you gotta stop using these services, even if it means sacrificing a hobby.

If, on the other hand, you care more about your hobby than these quirks annoy you, than by all means, go right ahead.

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