this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
1019 points (96.7% liked)

Technology

69657 readers
2943 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Per one tech forum this week: “Google has quietly installed an app on all Android devices called ‘Android System SafetyCore’. It claims to be a ‘security’ application, but whilst running in the background, it collects call logs, contacts, location, your microphone, and much more making this application ‘spyware’ and a HUGE privacy concern. It is strongly advised to uninstall this program if you can. To do this, navigate to 'Settings’ > 'Apps’, then delete the application.”

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] OfficerBribe@lemm.ee 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Kind of weird that they are installing this dependency whether you will enable those planned scanning features or not. Here is an article mentioning that future feature Sensitive Content Warnings. It does sound kind of cool, less chance to accidentally send your dick pic to someone I guess.

Sensitive Content Warnings is an optional feature that blurs images that may contain nudity before viewing, and then prompts with a “speed bump” that contains help-finding resources and options, including to view the content. When the feature is enabled, and an image that may contain nudity is about to be sent or forwarded, it also provides a speed bump to remind users of the risks of sending nude imagery and preventing accidental shares.

All of this happens on-device to protect your privacy and keep end-to-end encrypted message content private to only sender and recipient. Sensitive Content Warnings doesn’t allow Google access to the contents of your images, nor does Google know that nudity may have been detected. This feature is opt-in for adults, managed via Android Settings, and is opt-out for users under 18 years of age.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Event_Horizon@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (12 children)

It didn't appear in my apps list so I thought it wasn't installed. But when I searched for the app name it appears. So be aware.

load more comments (12 replies)
[–] pfr@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 2 months ago

laughs in GrapheneOS

[–] Sudomeapizza@lemm.ee 10 points 2 months ago

For those that have issues on Samsung devices: see here if you're getting the "App not installed as package conflicts with an existing package" error :

If you have a Samsung device - uninstall the app also from Knox Secure Folder. Entering to Secure Folder>Settings>Apps

[–] YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (5 children)

What about the "Android System Intelligence" app that someone else mentioned here? I just realized I have that one. It sounds like it has the capabilities to spy and maybe even more.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 months ago

What a pile of fuck.

[–] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 10 points 2 months ago (9 children)

Not on mine, it doesn't. I don't use the Play Store. I don't have Google Play Services. And I don't have Google Apps installed. And I'm running Lineage OS. So, fuck you Google.

load more comments (9 replies)
[–] Punchshark@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 months ago

Fuck these cunt

[–] Whippygoatcream@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Hope they like all my dick pics

[–] EndofLife 7 points 2 months ago

Don't worry they won't!

/Burn

[–] digdilem@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

More information: It's been rolling out to Android 9+ users since November 2024 as a high priority update. Some users are reporting it installs when on battery and off wifi, unlike most apps.

App description on Play store: SafetyCore is a Google system service for Android 9+ devices. It provides the underlying technology for features like the upcoming Sensitive Content Warnings feature in Google Messages that helps users protect themselves when receiving potentially unwanted content. While SafetyCore started rolling out last year, the Sensitive Content Warnings feature in Google Messages is a separate, optional feature and will begin its gradual rollout in 2025. The processing for the Sensitive Content Warnings feature is done on-device and all of the images or specific results and warnings are private to the user.

Description by google Sensitive Content Warnings is an optional feature that blurs images that may contain nudity before viewing, and then prompts with a “speed bump” that contains help-finding resources and options, including to view the content. When the feature is enabled, and an image that may contain nudity is about to be sent or forwarded, it also provides a speed bump to remind users of the risks of sending nude imagery and preventing accidental shares. - https://9to5google.com/android-safetycore-app-what-is-it/

So looks like something that sends pictures from your messages (at least initially) to Google for an AI to check whether they're "sensitive". The app is 44mb, so too small to contain a useful ai and I don't think this could happen on-phone, so it must require sending your on-phone data to Google?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] trslim@pawb.social 7 points 2 months ago

Dood they scanned all my furry porn

[–] Xanza@lemm.ee 6 points 2 months ago (15 children)

Seems to be innocuous, but there's no harm in removing it. Next update, it'll be returned, so the better solution long-term will be (if you're rooted) is to use an application to freeze it, which effectively disables it and it should survive and update. If you delete the app, a new update will put it back.

[–] AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Jokes on you my phone is so old it hasn't updated in 4 years

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (14 replies)
[–] Kraiden@kbin.earth 6 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Huh. My device seems to have been skipped? I don't do anything special, I'm using Play Store and Play Services, and I'm up to date, but it's not showing up in my settings app list

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] Bieren@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

Google harvesting all your data for profits. I’m shocked. Shocked I say.

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›