this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024

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Privacy

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Google Allows Creditors to Brick Your Phone (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I installed NetGuard about a month ago and blocked all internet to apps, unless they're on a whitelist. No notifications from this particular system app (that can't be disabled) until recently when it started making internet connection requests to google servers. Does anyone know when this became a thing?

Edit 2: I bought my Pixel 6 phone outright, directly from Google's Australian store. I have no creditors.

Were the courts not enough control for creditors? Since when are they allowed to lock you out of your purchased property without a court order?

I don't even live in the US, so what the actual fuck?

Edit 1: You can check it's installed (~~stock~~ Pixel 6 android 14) Settings > Apps > All Apps > three dot menu, Show system > search "DeviceLockController".

I highly recommend getting NetGuard, you can enable pro features via their website if you have the APK for as low as 0.10€, but donate more, because it's amazing. You can also purchase via Google Play store.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The fun aspect to this is that some banks have forced customers to use an Android for all their banking ops. So:

① You’re late paying a bill
② Creditor locks your phone
③ You cannot access your bank to make the payment because your phone is locked

Brilliant.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You can check it’s installed (stock android) Settings > Apps > All Apps > three dot menu, Show system > search “DeviceLockController”.

Is that just a “feature” of recent AOS versions? AOS 5’s triple dot menu has nothing like “show system”.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Not sure, perhaps I should change this to "Google Pixel Android 14"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Asus Zenfone 8 purchased outright in Australia. App does not exist on my phone.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Interesting. It's not available in the US.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

It's not "available" in the Australian Playstore either, whether it's installed so far seems to be how old your phone is (rough feeling based on comments). Not yet clear what the pattern is.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

This is pre-installed on my 6a, also purchased outright, unlocked, directly from Google in the US.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for sharing this OP. I turned on the notifications for my browser, and when I went on FB (thru firefox, not app) one of the connection notifications was to a website I went on once a few weeks or even a month ago. I knew it was creepy but damn.

I do have ublock origin but obviously that's not enough. I wish i could get rid of FB but there's 2 things i haven't been able to replicate elsewhere.

I'm just flabbergasted but wanted to say thanks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

No worries mate

[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

Yeah it's because they ship the same OS image for everyone, be it US on a carrier plan or otherwise. Google services has complete control over your device (more than just locking it down), and that's what you should be upset about. For you that app is just harmless bloat, what's actually spooky is google play services as a system app. Do yourself a favor and install grapheneOS.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

every time i have tried to install another OS on an android phone i have ended up bricking it.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Isn’t this more easily fixed?

$ adb shell 'pm disable --user 13 com.google.android.gms'

grapheneOS and the like might work for the OP and anyone with a mainstream phone, but there are a lot of unsupported cheap obscure phones which are stuck with stock Android.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Yeah well, my GrapheneOS Pixel 7 with gservices (not a choice for some banking apps) has the damn device lock controller app installed. I can't remove it. At least Graphene allows me to revoke its network/location permissions, which, by the way, it had granted by default.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

This. Didn't even use my Pixel 8 (then brand-new) until Grapheme OS was available for it (my Pixel 7 Pro got damaged beyond repair in an incident, not happy but though I expect privacy I don't expect a phone to survive ~20G of force) because fuck Google.

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