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Verizon To Force 'AppFlash' Spyware On Android Phones

Posted by BeauHD on from the tough-sell dept.

saccade.com writes: Verizon is joining with the creators of a tool called "Evie Launcher" to make a new app search/launcher tool called AppFlash, which will be installed on all Verizon phones running Android. The app provides no functionality to users beyond what Google Search does. It does, however, give Verizon a steady stream of metrics on your app usage and searches. A quick glance at the AppFlash privacy policy confirms this is the real purpose behind it: "We collect information about your device and your use of the AppFlash services. This information includes your mobile number, device identifiers, device type and operating system, and information about the AppFlash features and services you use and your interactions with them. We also access information about the list of apps you have on your device. [...] AppFlash information may be shared within the Verizon family of companies, including companies like AOL who may use it to help provide more relevant advertising within the AppFlash experiences and in other places, including non-Verizon sites, services and devices."

9 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Just install a 3rd party ROM on the phone by jonwil · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just install a 3rd party ROM on the phone so you dont have to put up with this crap. Oh wait, its Verizon, they lock the phone down so you cant install 3rd party ROMs or remove their crapware...

    Why anyone would go with Verizon when they do this crap instead of going with a phone and carrier that doesn't do crap like this is beyond me.

    1. Re:Just install a 3rd party ROM on the phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Because most people don't care jackass. They aren't going to hack their phone just to avoid Verizon's crapware. The real question is why Google even allows bastardization of Android by the carriers.

      Apple got that one right. They control the OS completely. The forks of Android to satisfy the handset OEMs and carriers makes Android suspect.

    2. Re: Just install a 3rd party ROM on the phone by Desler · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In comparison to Verizon? Yes. By many miles.

    3. Re:Just install a 3rd party ROM on the phone by msauve · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "they lock the phone down so you cant install 3rd party ROMs"

      Just buy a Pixel from Google. They work on VZW. They weren't bootloader lock to start, and AFAIK they still aren't.

      And, with recent changes with regard to ISPs, what makes you think there's one which "doesn't do crap like this", or won't soon? If there's nothing to prevent it, you can't assume it's not happening just because you don't know about it.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    4. Re:Just install a 3rd party ROM on the phone by nightfire-unique · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If Google was smart, they'd put a stop to this immediately. This shit does horrendous damage to the Android "brand" and there's no reason for them to tolerate it.

      Want access to the Play Store, GCM/GMS, etc? Thou shalt not install garbage on customers' devices.

      --
      A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
  2. people don't care. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The app provides no functionality to users beyond what Google Search does. It does, however, give Verizon a steady stream of metrics on your app usage and searches.

    For a couple decades there's been a steady stream of shitware of that general nature. "Toolbars" on desktops. "Bonzai buddie". Browser plug ins that exist only to datamine everything you do. Google itself, which profiles you for its own profit, not only web searches but all your emails and travels around the net. Windows 10, spyware built right in. Half the apps in the phone ecosystem that demand to scrape your contacts list for a calculator or whatever.

    People don't care. They have never cared. If they cared, the internet would be a very, VERY different kind of place.

  3. Who's to blame. by geekmux · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Dear Verizon,

    Fuck You.

    Oh, wait, how rude of me.

    Fuck You Very Much.

    I don't know who to blame more. Verizon, or their customer base who doesn't give a shit.

    Consumers, continue to enjoy your privacy ass-raping. You should enjoy it, because you support it.

    1. Re:Who's to blame. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They don't have to enjoy it, they're just indifferent toward it. They put their lives, photos, videos, location, associations, etc on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, et al, carry phones that track their location (this is the case even with dumbphones), send unencrypted traffic (including email) over the public internet and have done this for years (in most cases closing in on 2 decades). You have to understand that from their point of view, at this point the privacy fear mongerers are starting to sound a lot like the Year of the Linux Desktop crew.

      Bad things can happen no matter what, people aren't going to live in fear of what might happen to the degree that they don't share anything and instead try and be an anonymous, unidentifiable part of society.

      I agree that the level of privacy violation is out of control nowadays but the net effect on the average person is zero so obviously they don't care.

  4. Evie? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In security textbooks we usually talk about Alice, Bob, sometimes Charlie, as the communicating parties, and usually use Eve as name for an eavesdropping attacker.

    Nice, they at least call this app what it is.