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.”
Basically, ot scans all files and shit like an antivirus does on windows? Oks
No, antivirus software only looks for matches with known malware and exploits.
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.
How did you search for it? Search bar in settings?
On my settings screen I have a search bar at the top
you can look it up on your app managment settings too, search for it there.
Play Store, it doesn’t show in local search results, but they list it as installed.
Even worse, i found this comment in the app store and it did the same on my device :
Installed automatically without my knowledge, no notification, only found it because of a friend’s post, and even then, you only see it through a link, it doesn’t come up in your app list or a search of the Google play store. I thought it felt like my battery was draining a little quicker too, which is apparently also something noticed in connection to having this app. Uninstalling.
The app can be found here :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.safetycore
.Oh right, maybe I noticed because of Storage Isolation, that’s an app which allows you to restrict folder access of other apps, and it prompts me to select actions for every newly installed app. So it casually prompts me whenever google pushes a new, hidden installation.
i believe this application hides in different ways on different devices and maybe it is also different by regions making it even worse to detect and explain to someone else. So, i wouldn’t be surprised if you told me you found it in a different way than how it was explained in my comment.
.
also in the Forbes article :
Per one tech forum (
https://gbatemp.net/threads/psa-to-all-android-users-google-quietly-installs-spyware-on-android-devices.667542/GBAtemp.net - The Independent Video Game Community
)
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.… →
Remove the following 2 spywares :
1).
Android System SafetyCore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.safetycore
2).
Android System Key Verifier: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.contactkeysYep, I’ve removed both of those the second they showed up on my phone uninvited. Even as a non-US citizen, with the current state of their government, I definitely don’t want any corporate collecting data on myself.
i was able to find it on my oneplus, and i also noticed, why is my oneplus 12r draining so fast?
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.
You can freeze using ADB/Shizuku as well. No root needed.
If you freeze via non-room methods, updating the apk will re-enable it. So it’s the same situation as just removing the apk–it’ll basically re-enable itself.
I’ve never had an app frozen through ADB get auto-updated by the Play Store or Google Services and get re-enabled because of it. An app with an update available will even disappear from the Update list if disabled, and in order to update it you have to enable it first.
Freezing an app in an non-root fashion doesn’t do anything special. It’s moved to a different location and is effectively “removed” from a runnable state. The OS shows it as disabled/removed, but the files are still there. Newer versions of android (14+) will recognize applications it thinks are necessary (like this one, from Google) are moved/disabled and will pull a new apk during the upgrade process. It effectively re-installs the app.
By upgrade, do you mean OS upgrade?
how to freeze it on the app?
Using ADB:
adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.safetycoreIf you have Shizuku and aShell/ShizuShell installed, then just run this command in aShell:
pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.safetycoreAlternatively, for a GUI method, setup Shizuku and then use an app like Hail or Ice Box
Jokes on you my phone is so old it hasn’t updated in 4 years
Who would have thought the best security practice would turn out to be having devices too old to be updated with spyware? No jokes
I don’t see it on the app store to remove anymore
You can’t search for it. You have to open a direct link.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.safetycore
did they make it so after people started removing it?
And interestingly enough my phone crapped out on this post. But at least I was still able to read the the post.
Seriously…. Why do people continue to buy their products? They’re seemingly one of the most invasive security risks one could be involved with.
Most people don’t really know what that actually means, and they don’t feel they have anything to hide from some nebulous corporate entity.
why, what do you recommend? I mean you have just disclaime the whole android ecosystem, and the only other alternative is Apple, which is questionable if it’s better
I don’t have to recommend anything just because I’m asking why people are buying spyware tech.
Just like I may not know the proper way to safely jump out of an airplane, but I do know a parachute is involved.
A person asking why people do a thing that seems stupid isn’t obligated to solve the people.
why, what do you recommend?
I mean you have just disclaime the whole android ecosystem, and the only other alternative is Apple, which is questionable if it’s better.
and this would have even applied to my fairphone!
would have, if I didn’t get rid of google services the day I got it.I don’t have to recommend anything just because I’m asking why people are buying spyware tech.
Just like I may not know the proper way to safely jump out of an airplane, but I do know a parachute is involved.
A person asking why people do a thing that seems stupid isn’t obligated to solve the people.
Then I guess the better question is what do you use?
Wouldn’t it be a given that I don’t have an android phone?
That’s what you don’t use, which wasn’t what they asked, right?
I just realized the network error made me doubly post my comment, I’ve deleted the other copy
No worries. Happens to all of us.
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.
Here’s a link to it in PlayStore. It mentions some of the features it is a dependency for.
Well yeah, any part of the os has the capability to spy.
What do you mean by that? What I meant is that the functions, capabilities, and permissions it has could enable it to do so.
Yeah, so do the rest of the system apps, and the OS itself. Why is everyone freaking out about this one all of a sudden? If you don’t trust the Google software running on your phone, you shouldn’t be using it in the first place.
I’ve just given it the boot from my phone.
It doesn’t appear to have been doing anything yet, but whatever.
Per one tech forum this week
Stop spreading misinformation.
graphene folks have a real love for the word misinformation (and FUD, and brigading). That’s not you under there👻, Daniel, is it?
After 5 years of his
anticshateful bullshit lies, I think I can genuinely say that word triggers me.And what exactly does that have to do with GrapheneOS?
Please, read the links. They are the security and privacy experts when it comes to Android. That’s their explanation of what this Android System SafetyCore actually is.
Have you even read the article you posted? It mentions these posts by GrapheneOS
So is this really just a local AI model? Or is it something bigger? My S25 Ultra has the app but it hasn’t used any battery or data.
I mean the grapheneos devs say it is. Are they going to lie.
Yes, absolutely, and regularly, and without shame.
But not usually about technical stuff.
Interestingly I don’t have it on my stock samsung phone. I haven’t updated it since oneui 6. Is safetycore installed by update or by GMS?
Thanks. Just uninstalled. What a cunts
I uninstalled it, and a couple of days later, it reappeared on my phone.
Do we have any proof of it doing anything bad?
Taking Google’s description of what it is it seems like a good thing. Of course we should absolutely assume Google is lying and it actually does something nefarious, but we should get some proof before picking up the pitchforks.
Google is always 100% lying.
There are too many instances to list and I’m not spending 5 hours collecting examples for you.
They removed don’t be evil long time agoWhy check any sources first when you can just blindly rage and assume the worst?
Maybe you should given your closing sentence is incorrect and just bolsters the fact we shouldn’t blindly take everything we see at face value
They removed don’t be evil long time ago
See, this is why I like proof. If you go to Google’s Code of Conduct today, or any other archived version, you can see yourself that it was never removed. Yet everyone believed the clickbait articles claiming so. What happened is they moved it from the header to the footer, clickbait media reported that as “removed” and everyone ran with it, even though anyone can easily see it’s not true, and it takes 30 seconds to verify, not even 5 hours.
Years later you are still repeating something that was made up just because you heard it a lot.
Of course Google is absolutely evil and the phrase was always meaningless whether it’s there or not, but we can’t just make up facts just because it fits our world view. And we have to be aware of confirmation bias. Yeah Google removing “don’t be evil” sounds about right for them, right? It makes perfect sense. But it just plain didn’t happen.
Dood they scanned all my furry porn
Google photos has been “searchable by name” for years now. Tell it the name of a face in one photo and it can go search (pretty successfully) through all your photos for other photos containing that person. And, of course, once told, it never forgets.
Is it still a service when you are the product? Or, are you being served? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Serve_Man_(The_Twilight_Zone)
Hope they like all my dick pics
Don’t worry they won’t!
/Burn
Thnx for this, just uninstalled it, google are arseholes
an app on all Android
not my android :)
BTW did anyone reverse engineer it? Or doing rn (I’m HTH)?
