Google is secretly installing more spyware on your phones

[Mooncatt]

There's a new app that has been rolling out recently called Android System SafetyCore that Google is installing directly to Android devices. This is being done without user knowledge or consent, and also did not show up for me in a Play store search when using the app name, even though the app was installed onto my phone. I'm guessing they are still in the process of rolling the app out because it's not (yet?) on my wife's phone.

The app description claims it's to allow Google to scan your content and auto-censor what it deems to be sensitive. It also claims that the resulting data will stay only on your phone. I won't want nor need censoring, and seems I'm not the only one judging by the reviews and online discussions.

Considering Google's slogan is Don't Be Evil, I do not trust this app to be or remain so innocent in nature. Especially when they start out the entire premise of protecting you with secret installations and trying to hide the app in the Play search results. You can find it in your app manager, but here's the direct Play listing link I found doing a web based search.

Android System SafetyCore - Apps on Google Play

Provides safety features for Android devices.

play.google.com

 

[spARTacus]

Does it auto censor?

 

[mustang7757]

I have it on my s25u , doesn't seem to be against us but to keep our data safe especially through Google messages

Understanding Android System SafetyCore - Help

What is SafetyCore? Android System SafetyCore is a Google system service for Android 9+ devices. You may have noticed it in the list of services installed on your device. It provides privacy-preservi

support.google.com

 

[Mooncatt]

Does it auto censor?

If it is scanning to provide you a content warning people to showing you said content, that is a form of censorship. Even if it's a game of semantics, that still doesn't excuse everything else about how they are handling the rollout.

 

[Windroid 2483]

Scarry stuff! How long until governments demand that this be used to censer stuff they don't like.

 

[joeldf]

I see it too.

So, it installed itself, but in the Apps list, it's uninstallable. Would it just reinstall itself later?

And, if it's for Google Messages, what if you use a different text app?

 

[spARTacus]

If it is scanning to provide you a content warning people to showing you said content, that is a form of censorship. Even if it's a game of semantics, that still doesn't excuse everything else about how they are handling the rollout.

I don't think it's new for how they can periodically do rollout like that, basically without user pull, trigger, selection, permission and even knowledge. For this one, at least it shows up in the app list and the user can (unfortunately afterwards) still choose to uninstall. For some Google apps, they just seem to be able to internally update on their own external of playstore controls, not even indicate version number change, and basically different sub-versions of the same app version to different users in different regions.

Regardless, at present the future intended content classification or scanning/warning, didn't to me seem like censorship. I guess however we might not really know until the features actually roll out, if we will ever truly really know.

 

[mustang7757]

I see it too.

So, it installed itself, but in the Apps list, it's uninstallable. Would it just reinstall itself later?

And, if it's for Google Messages, what if you use a different text app?

I can uninstall it on unlocked s25u

 

[Mooncatt]

I see it too.

So, it installed itself, but in the Apps list, it's uninstallable. Would it just reinstall itself later?

And, if it's for Google Messages, what if you use a different text app?

I uninstalled it from the Play store link as shown in Mustang's screenshot. I wouldn't be surprised if it is reinstalled later, like as part of an OS update, but that remains to be seen.

Right now I think the censoring would apply only to Google messages, but it's still going to be there scanning in the background, and Google isn't trustworthy enough for me to just let it be.

 

[joeldf]

I can uninstall it on unlocked s25u

I went ahead and uninstalled it too.

We'll see how long it takes before it reinstalls itself, if ever.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I'm also able to uninstall it on my S24 Ultra running OneUI 7 beta.

 

[mustang7757]

I went ahead and uninstalled it too.

We'll see how long it takes before it reinstalls itself, if ever.

I didn't uninstall it , no reason for me to do so , I'm not convinced it does any harm .

 

[dangerousfen]

I found it on my Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus.
Uninstalled it and will see if it returns.

 

[joeldf]

I didn't uninstall it , no reason for me to do so , I'm not convinced it does any harm .

I'm not either. But I figured I could test out if it does come back.

So far, not yet.

 

[IsHacker]

There's a new app that has been rolling out recently called Android System SafetyCore that Google is installing directly to Android devices. This is being done without user knowledge or consent, and also did not show up for me in a Play store search when using the app name, even though the app was installed onto my phone. I'm guessing they are still in the process of rolling the app out because it's not (yet?) on my wife's phone.

The app description claims it's to allow Google to scan your content and auto-censor what it deems to be sensitive. It also claims that the resulting data will stay only on your phone. I won't want nor need censoring, and seems I'm not the only one judging by the reviews and online discussions.

Considering Google's slogan is Don't Be Evil, I do not trust this app to be or remain so innocent in nature. Especially when they start out the entire premise of protecting you with secret installations and trying to hide the app in the Play search results. You can find it in your app manager, but here's the direct Play listing link I found doing a web based search.

Android System SafetyCore - Apps on Google Play

Provides safety features for Android devices.

play.google.com

For more information, google is doing this through a backdoor called "GTalkService", which is a part of play store. The solution is to uninstall play store (you can use ADB, no root needed) and use something else like Aurora Store.

Play store is malware by its very definition, considering how it snoops on every app you open, allows google (and probably other people) a backdoor into your device, exhibits potentially unwanted behavior and imposes "play integrity".

 

[Laura Knotek]

I'm not either. But I figured I could test out if it does come back.

So far, not yet.

That's the same reason I uninstalled it. It hasn't come back yet.

 

[gendo667]

I didn't uninstall it , no reason for me to do so , I'm not convinced it does any harm .

This.

 

[SyCoREAPER]

It hasn't sent any data outbound but that's not to say it isn't handing data off to another System/Google app.

So far outside of Google installing this silently, which isn't a new phenomenon, there is only speculation on what this app is doing outside of Google's description.

Once/if there is some concrete evidence I think it warrants further discussion. Right now it's a witchhunt.