Unauthorised tracking via Appcloud?

[huffyyy]

Hi. I've just come across a post on insta that says that Samsung phones come with an app called AppCloud which collects data and sends over to israeli intelligence firms. Can someone confirm if this is true, as this is very concerning, and the only reason I switched to Samsung was it was one of the only "ethical" brands. 

[thrashhead]

It was develop by an Israeli company that aim to monitise ppls data hence spying on certain regions of the globe

[Reylob]

Hi @huffyyy 

It is true that AppCloud is installed on some A, M devices, including tablets. Samsung does NOT give the option to uninstall the app. It can be disabled, but not uninstall. Samsung should give the option to uninstall any app of  this sort.

It will be hard to confirm if the app is sending info to Israeli intelligence.

Settings -> Apps -> AppCloud

AppCloudAppCloudDisabled

[huffyyy]

Thanks for that. I knew there must be some truth as I also did a bit of research online and it said some might have it, some not, and the part about sending the info to isreali intelligence might or might not be true. I feel like there is no ethical tech company left on this planet, especially when it comes to mobile phones. I had one plus before which was quite good as well, but only recently bought the s25 as didn’t want to buy apple due to their questionable practices.

[Reylob]

Ethics is one of the first casualties when profit is to be had. That will include huge social media companies.

[Reylob]

The app has nothing to do with Apple the company. However, Apple the company is not better than most multinationals. Google, Apple, Facebook, TikTok, and endless list of companies do collect personal data for economic reasons.

Huawei was banned because they technically could spy and give information to the Chinese government. However, other Chinese brands were not banned which technically could do exactly the same. I would not be surprised if all was done as anti-competition technique. They were very advanced on their wireless technology to the point that many of our (UK and Europe) infrastructure was based on their technology.

[Star_girl]

👍👍

[Star_girl]

With all due respect, but i am sure 'p*******es' breaking into phones would require a different type of hacking, not a pre-installed app. What the PO is saying is a different level.

[RMN23]

Yes, AppCloud is an Isreali developed appl that cannot be disabled with its main function is data harvesting for Samsung users in WANA.  It is developed by an Isreali company called IronSource (now owned by the American company Unity). 

[RMN23]

you just admitted that it is installed on Samsung devices; why did you start the statement with "Certainly not true.."?

[Bindex]

All smartphones brands will collect data, and apps will collect data for advertising purposes and sometimes they will sell your data to *data brokers* which then will sell huge amounts of data to advertising firms for targeted ads.

Some apps & smart phones brands will allow you to block a lot of the data collection and you'll just get worse ads which aren't targeted no more.

But your data isn't getting sold to Israeli intelligent service or spied on by the Israeli intelligent service. However your data could get viewed by home government but only public data and some phrases can trigger more in-depth viewing for safety purposes.

But you aren't actively getting spied on by Israel.