I woke up this morning to find a new little friend on my phone! Android Safety Core.
So what is this great new application that was non-consentually installed on my device with no indicator that it ever was except an alert from Tracker Control.
(Shout out to Tracker Control on F-Droid for giving me a notif about apps when you install them. It’s the only reason I ever noticed this app was put on my phone.
)
There isn’t a of information on it, but essentially its an app that "protects" you from obscene images on your phone.
“One of the new features the company announced is called Sensitive Content Warnings. This is designed to give you more control over seeing and sending nude images. When enabled, it blurs images that might contain nudity before you view them and then prompts you with what Google calls a “speed bump” containing “help-finding resources and options, including to view the content.” The feature also kicks in and shows a so-called “speed bump” when you try to send or forward an image that might contain nudity.” - Android Authority
As for the Google play description, it’s very detailed about what your new friend entails.
Very descriptive.
So essentially it blurs any images of nudity that is sent to you or that is seen. This is so great to me! Finally I can use my phone in peace without having to worry about all those nude images randomly showing up and attacking me anymore!
Obviously the app has to see all the images that are sent to you in order to do this. I’m sure this won’t be abused!
People are taking it well too. 😊
Alright, some good news is that the app can be uninstalled. However to find it on the store you need to look up the link in your browser. I also provided it here.
Dont we all love google and what it does behind our backs for us?
TL;DR
Google recently non-consentually installed a new “safety” feature on our devices that blur any nude images that are sent to you or seen on your phone. They didn’t include any sort of update alert or anything and simply slipped it onto devices quietly. Here’s a link to the app where you can uninstall if you wish. Of course in order for an app to do this, it needs to see every photo that is ever sent to you. A clear privacy invasion if I say so myself.
Weird, it’s not on my phone (yet?), and I have a Pixel 9. Maybe I’ll be in a later rollout.
Well, I was already building a list of things to prepare for backup so I can migrate to GrapheneOS. I guess this puts more priority on it.
I do wonder, though. Does it work on encrypted chat apps like Signal? Seems like it shouldn’t, but maybe it works differently.
Edit: Sounds like it’s just Messages, as of now, though who knows what is in store for the future?
It may only be for SMS or google messages. It isn’t really clear.
Edit: It seems like the idea was intended for google messages however why they made it into its own app I wouldn’t know. It seems they made it to be opt out as said in the Android Authority article. Maybe having it as a separate app is what makes it “opt out”. Whatever its for. I certainly dont need it.