Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Remotely Changed the Settings on a Bunch of Phones Running Android 9 Pie (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the wait-what dept.

Last week, a mix of people who own Google Pixel phones and other devices running Android 9 Pie noticed that the software's Battery Saver feature had been switched on -- seemingly all by itself. And oddly, this was happening when the phones were near a full charge, not when the battery was low. From a report: Initially it was assumed that this was some kind of minor bug in the latest version of Android, which was only released a few weeks ago. Some users thought they might've just enabled Battery Saver without realizing. But it was actually Google at fault. The company posted a message on Reddit last night acknowledging "an internal experiment to test battery saving features that was mistakenly rolled out to more users than intended." So Google had remotely -- and accidentally -- changed a phone setting for a bunch of real-world customers. Several staffers at The Verge experienced the issue. "We have now rolled battery saver settings back to default. Please configure to your liking," the Pixel team wrote on Reddit before apologizing for the error.

9 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. All your phones by Cornwallis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    are belong to us.

  2. Next Week's Headlines by mentil · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In other news, Android users are mysteriously finding their Location Services and Google history settings turned to the 'on' position, even if they had previously manually turned them off. /s

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    1. Re:Next Week's Headlines by Rei · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I actually like both. I use the Sony Lifelogger app, although wish there was a better one out there (that one is too focused on fitness and they nerfed the timeline several years ago).

      What I really want from Google is a way to set a percentage charge limit. There's no point to putting excess wear on my battery on days when I'm not going to need a 100% charge. The rate of reactions with the electrolyte (and deposition of deposits on the anode) is proportional to the voltage; the lower the voltage you store your battery at, the lower the rate of degradation. I've seen an app to let you impose charge limits but it requires root and doesn't work on all phones.

      Even better than just a percentage charge limit would be scheduled charges, preferably with different schedules for different times of day. So e.g. for nighttime charges, to charge to 60% as soon as it's plugged in, then to wait until 20 minutes before my alarm to charge to a target percentage - but for daytime charges, to charge immediately to the target percentage.

      --
      They carry weapons and they know if you've been bad or good. Not everybody's good, but everyone tries.
  3. Who needs a backdoor? by meist3r · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If I have the keys to the entire apartment complex! No seriously, there was a light on in your bedroom. I HAD to come in and turn that off.

  4. Google, the Big Brother by SigmundFloyd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If they can do that, it doesn't seem too far fetched that they could also turn on the phone's cameras and microphones at will.

    --
    Knowledge is power; knowledge shared is power lost.
  5. Any word on how it was done? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is there any information on how the settings change was made?

    Obviously, OS updates could change settings(sometimes by legitimate necessity since an OS update can add new settings that need a default of some kind, remove features that used to have settings but no longer need them; or modify a feature enough that there isn't a clear answer for what 'preserving' the old setting would mean); so if it was done by pushing out an OS update with the wrong settings that would be sloppy but not fundamentally sinister.

    If, however, Google has sent MDM-like remote control(probably in Google Play Services somewhere), and they used that to toggle the setting things get rather less innocent.

    1. Re:Any word on how it was done? by koick · · Score: 5, Informative

      I have a rooted Pixel 2 running Android 9 Pie on Project Fi network. Since my phone is rooted, I don't take OTA updates and instead update them manually from the factory images they provide every month (under developer options, I even have 'automatic system updates' turned off). My device had its battery saver activated last week. Like others, I guess thought it was a bug, and simply turned off battery saver. Yeah, I'd guess that command they sent came through Google Play Services. Their ability to do this doesn't give me much comfort, but then again I'm not that surprised.

    2. Re:Any word on how it was done? by PinkyGigglebrain · · Score: 2

      Most likely, this was an update to the Settings app.

      You seem to have missed where they said:

      "..., I even have 'automatic system updates' turned off..."

  6. Welcome to 2018 by mrops · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Google writes the OS for the phones that drives all the hardware. I think this one is blown out of proportion. Yes, I would rather not have them change settings like this, it was a mistake, they admitted and that is more important. Apple, Samsung and Microsoft have same capability on their front, even Tesla can do the same for their cars.

    If you really want to stop this, install one of many open source initiative in the Android world and take control of your device, maybe pursue your elected official to regulate such updates. In the mean time, they have the capability to do whatever they want remotely, welcome to 2018.