Samsung Faces Lawsuit In China Over Smartphone Bloatware

An anonymous reader writes: Samsung is being sued in China for installing too many apps onto its smartphones. The Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission is also suing Chinese vendor Oppo, demanding that the industry do more to rein in bloatware. The group said complaints are on the rise from smartphone users who are frustrated that these apps take up too much storage and download data without the user being aware. Out of a study of 20 smartphones, Samsung and Oppo were found to be the worst culprits. A model of Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 contained 44 pre-installed apps that could not be removed from the device, while Oppo's X9007 phone had 71.

Comments

I like it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny how when government runs a country, you get government looking out for people/consumers. When corporations runs a country, people/consumers get screwed! Examples: Comcast, AT&T, Sprint, and many others.

Re:I like it.

[Vermonter]

Because a government would never use its powers to do something like illegally spy on its own citizens, or hold people in prison for years without trial... But please, tell me more about how you pay too much for your internet connection.

Re:Don't really understand.

[Anonymous Coward]

The laws that China have on this subject are the same as anywhere else: consumer protection laws.

Really, it's that "can't be removed" part that's the problem. Sure, they should be able to load the phone up with whatever they please before they sell it to you because it's "their" phone. But once your payment has been processed and you walk out of the store with phone in hand, it's no longer "their" phone; it's "your" phone. As long as you can delete programs to create the storage space that they advertise the phone contains, accepting of course that reasonably used space may include the actual OS and system files, but there should never be any cause for any pre-installed app that isn't required for the operation of the OS to be unremovable (spell-check says 'irremovable'; is that even a word?). Especially when that app is eating up your data caps to send information that you don't want it sending and can't stop it from sending.

Re:Thank God!

[digitig]

Not all preinstalled apps on my S4 mini can be disabled. And at random the phone pops up a screen asking me to approve an update to the Samsung software which I'm not willing to do because I'm not willing to concede the extra permissions it demands. Lots of the built-in apps won't work without the update, but they're apps I never use anyway. I'm worried it will catch me out one day by popping up the "OK" button right under where I was about to press. Time for me to root the phone, I suppose, but I cant find out how to do it for the build I have.