this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
1066 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

68066 readers
3373 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
1066
Google’s ‘Secret’ Update Scans All Your Photos (www.forbes.com)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
272 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

You can freeze using ADB/Shizuku as well. No root needed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

By upgrade, do you mean OS upgrade?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

how to freeze it on the app?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Using ADB:

adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.safetycore

If you have Shizuku and aShell/ShizuShell installed, then just run this command in aShell:

pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.safetycore

Alternatively, for a GUI method, setup Shizuku and then use an app like Hail or Ice Box