Samsung devices come with a feature sourced from shady Chinese company

guest · Jan 10, 2020

Samsung devices come with a feature sourced from shady Chinese company
January 9, 2020
https://www.neowin.net/news/samsung-devices-come-with-a-feature-sourced-from-shady-chinese-company

Earlier this week, a thread popped up on Reddit where a user went into detail on how Samsung is pre-installing spyware on all its Android phones and tablets, including the likes of the Galaxy S10 and Note10. This 'spyware' was the Storage Scanner feature located in the Device Care section that Samsung was sourcing from a shady Chinese company called Qihoo 360.

The Chinese company has earned itself a bad reputation for creating super shady apps that steal user data and tricking unknowing Android users into installing adware on their devices. Qihoo 360 has been known to hand over customer data to the Chinese government whenever asked, and its PC apps have also been panned widely.

There's no way to disable the storage scanner feature and it has complete access to the files and data on your Samsung smartphone, which might make some people uncomfortable.

A Samsung representative told The Verge that it "takes the protection of our users’ data very seriously, and we design our products with privacy and security top-of-mind. The storage optimization process, including the scanning and removal of junk files, is fully managed by Samsung’s device care solution.”
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Samsung is not the only Android OEM that relies on Chinese companies for certain features on its devices. Other companies like Xiaomi, Realme, and Huawei are also known to outsource similar features on their devices to Chinese companies with a questionable history.
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The Verge: Samsung’s Device Care app is sending data back to China — but it’s less scary than it sounds

A built-in app on Galaxy devices works with a Chinese security firm to find junk files
According to Samsung, the truth is less alarming than it appears. The company says the only data sent back to Qihoo is generic information needed to optimize storage — specifically naming OS version, phone model, and storage capacity, among other data.

And while Samsung’s explanation checks out, it may not be enough to quiet all of the doubts on /r/Android.
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guest · Feb 5, 2020

Samsung removes storage cleaner feature sourced from shady Chinese company
February 5, 2020
https://www.neowin.net/news/samsung...er-feature-sourced-from-shady-chinese-company

Last month, it was discovered that Samsung was sourcing the storage cleaner feature on its devices from a shady Chinese company Qihoo 360 which is known for stealing user data.

It looks like to be on the safe side, Samsung has completely removed the storage cleaner feature from the Device Care app in its devices. The company has released an update for the Device Care app updating it for Android 10 which also does away with the storage cleaner feature, though the change-log does not mention anything.
An APK analysis by a Redditor also confirms that the library sourced from Qihoo 360 has been removed from the app, though some strings related to the cleaner feature do remain.

It is possible that the company will bring back the feature eventually after building it in-house or sourcing it to another company.
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Rasheed187 · Feb 8, 2020

LOL, I didn't even know that Qihoo 360 had such a bad reputation?

Brummelchen · Feb 9, 2020

Qihoo is owner of Opera browser and its CEO is very questionable about financial transactions. read the news.

LoneWolf · Feb 9, 2020

Qihoo is a shady company at best, I try to steer clear of anything associated with them whenever possible. I was thinking of trying the Opera browser again until I saw Brummelchen's post, not now.

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