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Pre-installed apps on low-end Android phones are full of security holes
In what has become an annual reckoning, security research company Kryptowire recently published its 2019 report on the state of manufacturer-installed software and firmware for Android devices and, to no one's surprise, they found more than 140 bugs which could be exploited for malicious purposes.
The DHS-funded report uncovered 146 apps, which come pre-installed on inexpensive Android handsets, would pull shenanigans like eavesdropping through the microphone, unilaterally changing their permissions or surreptitiously transmitting data back to the manufacturer without ever notifying the user.
Kryptowire found these bugs on phones from 29 different manufacturers from relatively unknowns like Cubot and Doogee to marquee companies include Sony. And given that the average Android come with anywhere from 100 to 400 apps pre-installed, often bundled as part of larger app suites, these vulnerabilities pose a growing threat to users.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @11:54PM
Lucky old you....
Ok, so I've also been in that happy position *once*, every other time, it's been marked as a system app and has required me to root the phone to remove it.
As a.n.other poster points out, removing the app isn't actually removing Facebook's tentacles from your phone..it's amazing how 'chatty' to FB domains a 'FB free' phone can be...if the firewall lets it, that is...