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.

  • coffeeClean@infosec.pub
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    8 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.

  • TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Love the Chinese phones. None of this crap US stuff is enabled. It’s baked into the system ROM so it is there. But on mine it has never transfered any data, not even ever been active. It’s just dead code taking up a few megabytes.

      • TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Lower quality? Lol.

        I’ll give you a chance to look up the Mix Fold 3. And then any other equivalent phone available in the US market.

        Even excluding the folding aspect, the screen sizes and overall thickness means it looks and works exactly like a non foldy. 50W wireless, 120W wired charging. 1TB of storage, 16GB of RAM. Leica lenses.

        On top of that, zero of my data goes to the US government at it does on carrier branded phones. I will give all my data to the ccp if they want it. I have no interest in what they do with it. I have very high interest in what a five eyes nation does with my data and information.

        • dodgy_bagel@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          8 months ago

          Wow! Rattling off stats like that is a great way to show you’re not shilling.

          Tell me, how is the display color quality and camera resolution?

          • TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Cameras are better than Samsung flagship and on par with iPhone. The newest 14 beats the iPhone 15 in side by side tests according to many media outlets.

            The display is Samsung OLED. The exact same display technology.

            Educate yourself to the world outside of the USA and you’ll find far superior technology.

        • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Get replacement parts, get access to bootloaders, get control of your data. You can’t? Lower quality, and you admit it proudly.

          • TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Funny how that’s not needed when you don’t break your phone and the thing works out of the box. No random reboots and resets like every US carrier branded phone where a custom ROM is a necessity.

            Also if I need replacement parts all the mobile repair shops stock them in places I routinely visit.

            Youre just too taken in by propaganda to admit the shit the US shoves down your throat isn’t that great.

            • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              I need the ROMs to play with hardware in ways manufacturers and Google don’t intend. I don’t ask the manufacturer for permission, nor do I need to as source code and bootloaders are available.

              I’m not willing to be a data point for profit, I don’t give a fuck whether it’s the shithead ccp or fuckbox google, my data stays on my phone unless I decide otherwise.

              Can’t do that? Again, proud of your weakest element. How strange. Enjoy your inferior phone.

    • Gadg8eer@preserve.games
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      8 months ago

      Unlike Japan in the 80s, I wouldn’t trust the CCP more than products made in Democratic nations.

      That being said, I am now VERY glad I switched to Graphene OS the moment I got this phone. Fuck this kind of shit, I bought this phone.

  • smb@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    anyone remember the time when google removed(!) their internal “don’t be evil” rule? guess this is part of the outcome of that “be evil” that came along with removal of the opposite. Abuse of this mechanism is IMHO veery predictable ;-)

    There are plenty of google-free cellphones, one could easily stick to better products of better companies. help yourself, google’s not gonna do that for you within the next 5billion* years as they IMHO already stated they “want” to be evil now, always remember that ;-)

    *) thats round about when our sun expands too much for earth, so i currently dislike doing any predictions beyond that point ;-) i do not predict google would last that long, only that they’ll keep beeing evil until their end.

      • smb@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        ok, i have to admit, that i was thinking of google-“services” free phones like the new ones from huawei. but sure android is made by google (but not “owned” by them). however i can try to “rescue” my argument by saying something like “just use a nokia 3310! they’re still working and the batterie should still last a week if not more” ;-)

        however projects like lineage os might be a good choice to have threeth (as in more than “both”), more security, less dependency from google, and also more influence on the actual software included in the build, if it’s not even possible to just compile it yourself and have freedom of changing every line of code as you wish.

        • michael_palmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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          8 months ago

          Huawei doesn’t even provide possibility to unlock bootloader, so it’s big NO. Currently I’m using Lineage OS on my primary phone and Linux on secondary phone. But the main problem is big amount of proprietary staff like modems, that can even work bypassing SOC and OS. I found only one phone with truly open-source hardware. It’s Liberty phone from Purism. It costs 2000$ and has perfomance comparable to 50$ Android phone.

          • smb@lemmy.ml
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            7 months ago

            my idea currently is to finish some projects that have priority and afterwards then look for lineage os on raspberry pi, combined with gsm modem and maybe a gps module, all powered by a slim powerbank. might make up a huge bulky phone but i almost want to start building it now. On the other hand if i wait until my other projects are finished, the whole thing might be ready made available for self assembly…

            • michael_palmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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              7 months ago

              I thought about it too, but I want to make a tablet based on RPI 5. I have a 3D printer, so I hope to be able to make an adequately sized case.

    • Nom Nom@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Devs still need to eat so we will need a better alternative to adsense. As long as we depend on these corporate services their stranglehold will only continue strengthen like this.

    • dev_null@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      anyone remember the time when google removed(!) their internal “don’t be evil” rule?

      I remember when media falsely reported clickbait articles that they did and people bring that up to this day. They moved it from the introduction to the closing statement. Which you can argue makes it less prominent or whatever, but it was never removed.

      Of course it makes no difference, it wasn’t followed either way, and definitely isn’t followed now. But no, it was never removed. You can see it yourself right here at the end: https://abc.xyz/investor/google-code-of-conduct/

          • FoxBJK@midwest.social
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            8 months ago

            And yet it needs to be said because even 6 years after this didn’t happen people are still convinced that it did. It’s brought up way too often and I’m beyond tired of it at this point. Hate on Google for things they actually do, not because they moved 3 words to the bottom of a webpage.

            • yetiftw@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              my point was that the only reason anything ever receives attention in any way is due to an agenda

    • John Richard@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      You act like it is Google’s fault that someone found questionable software on the phone they got from Rent-a-center or Alibaba.

  • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldOP
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    8 months ago

    Requests the app made today.

    This is my phone I own outright, by the way. I don’t have any creditors.

    • Salix@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      I find it interesting that yours is com.google.android.devicelockcontroller.

      I checked mine on GrapheneOS and it looks like it’s the AOSP version of the package: com.android.devicelockcontroller

    • Refurbished Refurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org
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      8 months ago

      adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.devicelockcontroller

      If you’re using Shelter, then in addition to that command, replace --user 0 with --user 10

      You don’t need root to do this. You can also uninstall other bloatware using this same method.

      • _tezz@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        New to this depth of phone administration, where are you entering this command? Is there a developer CLI I should be looking for or is this done with a third party app or something?

      • bigkahuna1986@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        I tried this on a Pixel 7 and am getting:

        panther:/ $ pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.devicelockcontroller

        Failure [DELETE_FAILED_INTERNAL_ERROR]

        I also tried disable and got:

        Cannot disable a protected package: com.google.android.devicelockcontroller

      • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldOP
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        8 months ago

        Hero, I just have to get around to doing it 😅 (I will, but grumble, grumble this is why most people don’t bother battling for privacy)

    • topher@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Mvp comment there. I checked mine and I am in the US, on a phone I originally bought on credit. I do not have that app installed. Go figure. 🤷‍♂️

      Definitely worth checking out your app list to make sure. I wonder if it accidentally came downstream from AOSP into the alt ROMs, and that’s why it’s not in my stock, proprietary, US market, flagship Google pixel device.

      • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldOP
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        8 months ago

        I am at such a loss, because I can see it in NetGuard, and open it’s app details from there, but it doesn’t work even appear in system apps in Shelter.

        • John Richard@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Your Store screenshot is not the same app. What is the ID of the app in your original screenshot cause at this point it looks like you just make things up for clout. Anyone else find it strange that people can post almost anything about Google whether true or not and the bot accounts come out from under the woodwork just to share more fake info.

          • Arthur Besse@lemmy.ml
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            8 months ago

            Anyone else find it strange that people can post almost anything about Google whether true or not and the bot accounts come out from under the woodwork just to share more fake info.

            I find it strange that in the face of obviously conclusive evidence that this is a real app that Google made and which many people in this thread have installed (despite not even having bought their phone on credit) you are here posting multiple comments arguing that it is somehow not real…and you even flagged the post. I don’t think you’re a bot but I must say that your dedication to defending Google, especially in this case, is strange to say the least.

  • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    8 months ago

    i think they’re just using the device administrator feature of android right? i know outlook does this if i connect to my work email

    • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 months ago

      So because I’m using a work profile, this gets installed?

      I’m using shelter, also, hence have a work profile.

      But even so, this shouldn’t be installed.

      • Lath@kbin.earth
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        8 months ago

        If it’s specific to a work profile, then it’s likely to allow a user to prevent leaking sensitive work materials in case of a lost phone.

      • さようなら@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        Seen this comment several times and since you’re OP and can get more eyes on you than my random comment: P6 paid for in full, installed GrapheneOS with no gApps and no Work Profile and I still have that app

        • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldOP
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          8 months ago

          Yikes. Well at least I feel vindicated that it’s not somehow my “fault” for using Shelter. It’s where I install all my questionable

          Why in the world would this be bundled with AOSP? (Or is Graphene not built on stock AOSP, I have no concept of how that works)

    • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
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      8 months ago

      It’s built into Android, but I suspect yes it needs to be granted device admin first so I doubt this can just enable out of nowhere.

  • liliumstar@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 months ago

    I checked and this is not present on my device. It is an unlocked Google Pixel 6a purchased via contract with the mobile provider. That said, I factory reset the device when I got it, so it may have been removed at that time.

  • coffeeClean@infosec.pub
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    8 months ago

    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”.