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microtonaltoday at 8:57 AM2 repliesview on HN

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 devices.

Between these companies pushing adware/spyware and Apple putting Apple Creator Studio ads in former iWork applications, ads for Apple Intelligence in the system settings, and pushing ads for their F1 movie in Apple Wallet, smartphones have reached the mass enshittification phase.

The only safe havens are Pixel with GrapheneOS and Fairphone with I don't know what exactly (Murena sorta has ads for their own stuff and has many other issues, I guess LineageOS then). Perhaps ironically, given the context, Motorola with GrapheneOS too :).


Replies

fg137today at 11:34 AM

OneDrive on some Samsung phones recently started uploading user photos on their own, despite user never granting apps the permission to do so:

https://www.reddit.com/r/samsunggalaxy/comments/1t7vqr8/why_...

I am getting tired of all these nonsense.

At this point, Samsung may be shipping more malware than anyone else on phones

show 1 reply
robotnikmantoday at 4:39 PM

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