Google Warning: Millions of Android Phones Come Preloaded with Malware

forbes.com

22 points·jameslk··6 comments

Samsung are big offenders for this, putting the Peel TV remote on their phones, which can't be uninstalled. Recently, the app was updated to put advertisements on your phone's homescreen. Completely unacceptable

I don't buy Samsung anymore for this reason. I don't know if it's still the case but I also used to have like 2 versions of every app, the Google one and the Samsung one. I seemed to remember at one point I even had two SMS apps, totally ridiculous.

With the whole poor security of the SmartThings stuff, I have serious doubts about Samsung's ability in software. Their online services were dire, no SSO so I had to frequently re-login when I moved to a different part of portal, errors here and there.

Samsung hardware is still top-tier though. For the poweruser, an attractive option is a Samsung device rooted to remove all bloatware, and sometimes even flashed with the AOSP Android ISO (instead of the carrier-specific, pre-loaded operating system)

Name of the malware: Google

There are phones that come with Facebook preinstalled, so add that to the list.

Surpise, surprise.

This is why you should flash over the phone's OS with something AOSP-based the moment you get it.

Ideally you wouldn't install Google Play Services afterwards, but if you do you have at least upgraded to "possibly insecure" from "definitely insecure and probably malicious".

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