If you have an #Android #phone, a new app that doesn’t appear in your menu has been automatically and silently installed (or soon will be) by #Google. It is called #AndroidSystemSafetyCore and does exactly the same - scan all images on your device as well as all incoming ones (via messaging). The new spin is that it does so “to protect your Privacy”.
Article explaining what it does Here's how Google is letting Messages warn you about nudes - Android Authority
Fortunately I don’t use that Android crap any more and I switched to GOS a long time ago, so if they find a compromising photo what do they do?
Just about everyone responding to that thread appears to be extremely misinformed.
Firstly, this has nothing to do with the image scanning that Apple cancelled after public outrage.
Since then, Apple has implemented Communication Safety which uses on-device machine learning to blur images containing nudity and link users to helpful resources. This is the kind of feature that Google is now implementing; no photos are ever sent off your device, and Google (just like Apple) receives no indication that images have been blurred.
No data shared with third parties
No data collected
I tested it: I sent a photo of my private parts to my wife via WhatsApp, and nothing happened. Nothing was reported. This app was also installed on her phone.
I’m sure third-party apps will be able to implement support for this feature in the future, but I believe it’s Google messages exclusive for the time being.
It is also opt-in for users over the age of 18.
Nothing is collected and/or shared with third parties, it runs locally on the device?
I’m always dubious about Google when they say they don’t collect anything.
I find that Google is usually fairly forthcoming when it comes to what they collect, especially when compared to other privacy-invasive companies. The caveat is, of course, that they collect just about everything. Personally, I doubt this is an attempt to get at your photos when they already have access to the photos of all Google Photos users.
I’m OK with the feature, what makes me uncomfortable is the fact that they can remotely install apps on “your” phone without user interaction. I’d like to know if it gets installed with permissions pre-granted and whether it’s installed as a system app.
Without a custom OS, your phone is no longer yours it seems.
100% true. Even Graphene OS says this isn’t a privacy problem.
Yes, that is a thing since ages, when google play started uninstall rogue apps if detected. Unfortunately the privileges of google services are enormous and if they want to pown your device it would be totally possible.
More Information on AndroidSystemSafetyCore:
What is the Android System SafetyCore App & Why is it on my Device?
Tl;DR: Its a clientside system for Google Messages that auto-warns your for messages flagged as suspicious. Opt-in warning for 18+ about nudes, automatically warns 18- about nudes.
It helps ordinary users from not clicking “Install this APK” messages sent on google chats, and attempts to prevent young adults from sexting each-other through their chat platform. So its not a privacy issue and actually improves security in a way; though Google Chats and other Google services shouldn’t be considered private to begin with.
They did get sued for lying about not tracking users through incognito mode..
Google, OEMs, ODMs can do way, way more than remotely install apps on your Androids. Not w/ AOSP, which I presume to be de-Googled & treble’d (de-OEM’d), however.
Such capabilities is the main bone of contention between those who lockdown hardware+software (ex: verified boot, safety core) in the name of security and those who’d rather be true owners of the silicon they purchase (ex: root access, unlocked bootloader) and not have security-related stuff imposed up on them.
Getting the full story on this one has been challenging for me. What user data did Google lie about not collecting? The Incognito page says websites will still track you in this mode, but Chrome won’t - was Google tracking Chrome users with data directly from the Chrome browser regardless of whether Google’s trackers were on a website? If not, it seems they made it plenty clear they would still track users…
This is the new version of the page they updated after the lawsuit.
Thank you for your service 
This is the first time I’ve seen someone say “GOS”. Does GOS mean GrapheneOS???
Yes, that’s right GOS = GrapheneOS
It seems people have short memories.
Yeah, I think this topic was covered by Michael Bazzell in his podcast.
Classic Google, you’re supposed to spy on users to check if they’re using your services correctly, not flagging content without a proper reason.