Privacy International and about fifty other NGOs sent an open letter to Google on Wednesday about the applications pre-installed on Android smartphones. The signatories believe that some of these "bloatwares", which in most cases cannot be deleted from phones, "exploit user data". These can indeed be collected, shared and exposed without their consent and without their being aware of it.
Activists in action: Privacy International petition scrutinizes Android's bloatware https://t.co/murv5WtubY
- Christine Hall (@BrideOfLinux) January 12, 2020The letter to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc., is accompanied by a petition entitled "People should not have to give up their privacy and security by buying a smartphone". NGOs point out that nine out of ten pre-installed apps are not available on Google Play while phones have the Google Play Protect label. Some functions are not monitored by the Android security system or continue to run, even after closing the app.
Removal of Google label
The letter and the petition ask the Californian giant to take "urgent" measures. Defenders of the right to privacy want the portals concerned to be subject to assessments similar to those carried out on the apps present in Play Store. They believe that the programs should be removable by users and that updates are available without the need for an account.
They add that any smartphone that does not meet the cybersecurity criteria should not receive a label from Google. The signatories hope that these changes will "better protect people and prevent manufacturers from abusing them, in this frantic race for low prices for smartphones".
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