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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

#81
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but in fairness, I don't know of any brand, tech or otherwise, that can completely wall itself off against insider threats. No matter how vigilant you are, someone who knows exactly how you move will find a way around you.

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?

> But this would show a complete lack of code review, no?

You'd be surprised how many websites use Google Tag Manager to allow their marketing department to roll out trackers and other JS snippet directly into the site's root context.

GTM et al's sole reason of existence is to provide marketing people with a way to bypass corporate IT.

And I definitely would not rule out something like this being the cause in the end.

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

#82
post #12

I used to choose Motorola devices for a long time but since 2 years when I bought Edge 30 Fusion I started to notice they automatically (without my knowledge) add 3 stupid apps or games about two times a month :/ There is no way to stop it. My kids phones are stuffed with this sh*t.

I got a prompt about trying new apps every week or something similar. The wording, the moment it prompted me were clearly designed for people to just say "ok" and then wonder how apps were installing regularly without any action. I got caught myself, disabled it but still got new app installs later. I killed the whole thing and have been free since. But definitely felt like a scam. And the apps suck.

They even force you to select a bunch of apps during out-of-box setup on some Motorola phones and it mandates they automatically download post-setup. You can't say "no", you straight up have to let the phone queue up and let it pull all the APKs down for a bunch of shitty preloaded games and Netflix and crap, load them in, then get to waste fifteen minutes removing them again. :\

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

#85

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.

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

#86

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…

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 regardless of how little you use them. Android, because of the whole OEM story, of course is much worse, but I don't feel like any of what you share is new, been going on for decades at this point.

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

#87
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm misunderstanding nothing You're probably just not willing to believe that a 'partnership' with a massive company will change things, like I do. I am disagreeing, not misunderstanding. There's a difference

Have you ever observed the GrapheneOS team? I have rarely seen any team more principled than them, outside maybe RMS. Time will tell, but my bet is on the GrapheneOS team doing the right thing, they have always done so in the past.

> Have you ever observed the GrpheneOS team

I certainly have

> I have rarely seen any team more principled than them

Totally agree with you there.

I'll say no more because you pay a heavy penalty on HN for criticising the project.

I'll just say I hope the collaboration brings some needed maturity, level heads, and stewardship, and that the devs can continue just to focus on the tech.

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

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On some phones this is done by something like AppCloud, which you can usually uninstall from the user partition using ADB/Universal Android Debloater.

Or: buy another brand and not jump hoops.

A chinese one? My xiaomi required debloating, which left me without the "apps" menu in settings. I am not happy about having to do that. Side note: I have to use either intents or adb to administrate the apps.

All the "best phones" for most of us are bloated tracking devices.

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

#89

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…

Although you will have to buy a used phone in order to pay less than 250$, it seems like GrapheneOS is the best solution for that problem. Not optimal, but the best among what we have.

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

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily there is a mobile phone OS and hardware that isn't produced by the world's largest advertising company, and furthermore doesn't allow two different corporations to be involved in the core OS of the device.

I hope you are not referring to the company that is pushing AI ads through their system settings, pushing Creator Studio subscription ads through the formerly non-shareware productivity tools, and pushing movie ads through their wallet? Seriously, get a Pixel and install GrapheneOS, or maybe a Fairphone with LineageOS.

"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.

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