Most everything Google is arguably spyware They make money through spying on users. But of course, their defense is that it's not really spying, because everyone knows that they do it
Are you saying that you can't remove it even on a ROOTED device? I didn't see any mention of that in the article but I was wondering if any users here have rooted and deleted some of this?
I'm sure that it can all be removed by rooting. Unless it's in firmware. But that would be pretty hardcore, no?
The spyware will be able to remove by rooting or flashing a new ROM. Rooting is actually really easy.
That would mean they would need to write custom code for each device? I agree more likely just in the ROM itself and by non-removable they must mean that it cannot be removed by factory reset.
Let me understand this properly - are they suggesting that the preinstalled Facebook and Google Drive apps are being customized/modified by the vendors, or are the vendors installing apps that only appear to be Facebook/Google Drive but in reality aren't? Or are we talking about the real Facebook/Google Drive apps being installed, but their permissions are set such that they pose a risk to data the user isn't intentionally sharing to those services?
The offending apps will be able to be easily removed it the phones are rooted. They won't be removed by doing a factory reset. The "firmware" is actually the ROM.
Yep, that was my point ---- rooting. I don't root my Android but its simple to do. I have lots of friends that do it. Most of the popular models have well tested ROM's out for them. The android forums would be a good place to start learning/reading if you were interested. Since I always have my laptop I don't do social media on my smartphone.