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

Post by VortexLain » Tue, May 26, 2026, 10:20 AM UTC

petu wrote: post #34

999900000999 wrote: post #18

To think I was worried about buying a Xiaomi tablet while already using a Motorola. Gonna flash a rom on the Xiaomi anyway, but all oems are doing this type of stuff.

Note that Xiaomi today is very hostile to bootloader unlocking -- to get unlock code you need to win in daily first come, first served "lottery" (they limit total number of unlocked devices per day). After a second or two passes you're already too late for the day.

Post by phoronixrly » Tue, May 26, 2026, 10:24 AM UTC

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

Post by Neil44 » Tue, May 26, 2026, 10:28 AM UTC

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...

Post by pitkali » Tue, May 26, 2026, 10:41 AM UTC

microtonal wrote: post #61

0xEF wrote: 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?

Post by mitchell209 » Tue, May 26, 2026, 11:06 AM UTC

embedding-shape wrote: post #86

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…

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…