Google app being flagged as a virus by Huawei phones

3 years ago by skilledtothegills to c/technology

Huawei phones are flagging Google apps as Trojan malware, saying that the app was detected sending SMS privately, enticing users to pay with adult content, downloading/installing apps privately, or stealing private information, which may cause property damage and privacy leakage.

I'm seeing a lot of reports from users of Huawei and Honor devices have reported that their phones are incorrectly identifying Google apps as Trojan malware, specifically labeled as TrojanSMS-PA. According to the alert, this "malicious software" has the ability to send SMS messages without user consent.

dojan 134 points 3 years ago

I mean, Google most certainly is spyware so I don’t see how it’s wrong.

path: 0 4906006, hotness: undefined, score: 134, children: 11
netchami 59 points 3 years ago
path: 0 4906006 4908180, hotness: undefined, score: 59, children: 9
DeathWearsANecktie -30 points 3 years ago

US government having a US citizens data is worse than China having a US citizens data. Not that either scenario is ideal. But the kicker is that both probably have your data anyway.

path: 0 4906006 4908180 4908858, hotness: undefined, score: -30, children: 8
obinice 41 points 3 years ago

I don't recall anyone mentioning the USA?

I''m not in that country, and Google's spyware collecting data for the USA is just as concerning to me as China doing the same, neither country can be trusted to have my nation's best interests at heart.

path: 0 4906006 4908180 4908858 4909398, hotness: undefined, score: 41, children: 6
netchami 21 points 3 years ago
path: 0 4906006 4908180 4908858 4909398 4910181, hotness: undefined, score: 21, children: 4
satan -3 points 3 years ago

I also don't recall anyone mentioning China before the poster above him too though. Considering the post mentions Google and Huawei, both are close to their government, mentioning their country was inevitable but only one gets precedence over the other.

Your concerned comments only appearing when you want to defend someone doesn't exactly make you an unbiased.

But your post getting more votes definitely shows where the biases lie. So lose the veil of "both sides".

path: 0 4906006 4908180 4908858 4909398 4926973, hotness: undefined, score: -3, children: 0
TrickDacy 3 points 3 years ago

No

path: 0 4906006 4908180 4908858 4910846, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0
makingStuffForFun 9 points 3 years ago

Agree

path: 0 4906006 4906194, hotness: undefined, score: 9, children: 0
corrupts_absolutely 104 points 3 years ago
path: 0 4907236, hotness: undefined, score: 104, children: 0
zecg 83 points 3 years ago

Pot protecting users from kettle

path: 0 4908339, hotness: undefined, score: 83, children: 0
Ordoabchao 68 points 3 years ago

I'd trust a Huawei phone less than I would a Google phone. Much less.

path: 0 4907152, hotness: undefined, score: 68, children: 32
doctordevice 17 points 3 years ago

Hands down the worst phone I've had was the Nexus 6P. The battery issues were incredibly bad, to the point there was a successful class action lawsuit about it.

Since that was a Google phone manufactured by Huawei, I have no idea how that contributes to this conversation but it seemed relevant. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

path: 0 4907152 4911286, hotness: undefined, score: 17, children: 1
Raiderkev 1 point 3 years ago

That thing was a POS. Thankfully Google gave me a Pixel XL with double the storage on the house because of it, but I also in hindsight worry that my personal data was being backdoored to Beijing. 10 years ago me should have been wiser to not buy a Chinese company's phone.

path: 0 4907152 4911286 4926728, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0
RobotToaster -31 points 3 years ago path: 0 4907152 4909899, hotness: undefined, score: -31, children: 3
Redjard 31 points 3 years ago

Huawei Smartphones collect a lot of data from their users and send it to Huawei[1], and the founder of Huawei has very strong relations to the Chinese government[2].

[1] https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279942 "On the data privacy practices of Android OEMs"
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren_Zhengfei "Ren Zhengfei [...] is the founder and CEO of Huawei Technologies [...]. He is a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)."

A company being employee owned is a very good sign, but mainly for worker treatment. Huawei is still not managed by all of its employees; a few people in upper management are tasked to represent the owners interest, and in that process, as per usual, morals get diluted.

You can see this by the facts that Huawei phones still violate user privacy by collecting copious amounts of data on them, or that Huawei knowingly supplies surveillance equipment to the CCP, that is used in areas where a lot of Uyghurs live and in the not-concentration-camps that reeducate Uyghurs .

Besides that, I also just came across "Huawei states it is an employee-owned company, but this remains a point of dispute" on their wikipedia article, which at a cursory look appears to have some good points against that statement behind it.
The paper about that is here https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3372669

In summary, we find the following:

  • The Huawei operating company is 100% owned by a holding company, which is in turn approximately 1% owned by Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei and 99% owned by an entity called a “trade union committee” for the holding company.

  • We know nothing about the internal governance procedures of the trade union committee. We do not know who the committee members or other trade union leaders are, or how they are selected.

  • Trade union members have no right to assets held by a trade union.

  • What have been called “employee shares” in “Huawei” are in fact at most contractual interests in a profit-sharing scheme.

  • Given the public nature of trade unions in China, if the ownership stake of the trade union committee is genuine, and if the trade union and its committee function as trade unions generally function in China, then Huawei may be deemed effectively state-owned.

  • Regardless of who, in a practical sense, owns and controls Huawei, it is clear that the employees do not.

So at every path we come to the same conclusion, the CCP will get your data, and about as much of it as google (and probably the US government) if you used their operating system and services.

Huawei is about as trustworthy as your average trillion dollar corporation, and about as devious with their whitewashing as all others too. Google is masquerading as pro-privacy, apple as pro-repair and pro-environment, and Huawei as pro-worker and state-independent, because they all aren't but would profit if they where perceived to be

path: 0 4907152 4909899 4911370, hotness: undefined, score: 31, children: 0
Hamartiogonic 5 points 3 years ago

Yet, many European governments don’t trust Chinese tech companies at all.

Source

path: 0 4907152 4909899 4924796, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 0
Ataraxia 3 points 3 years ago

Hahahah and their phones are crap. I used to have one and it had a fake camera and after I activated it my debit card info was used by a scammer. Never had that happen before. And the crappy battery became a spicy pillow very fast.

path: 0 4907152 4909899 4925007, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0
Joncash2 -49 points 3 years ago

Of course. That's because you blindly believe the country that wiretaps it's allies, like Merkle in Germany. That spies on its citizens using systems like Prism. Arrests journalists who report this like Assange. Yeah, those guys are totally who you should believe. And no, Huawei still hasn't had any evidence against them, only conjecture from that country.

And I know what you're going to say. You're going to call me naive and that Huawei definitely does it. But yes go on trusting the country with a laundry list of violations.

path: 0 4907152 4907871, hotness: undefined, score: -49, children: 25
Redjard 37 points 3 years ago

So you are saying that Huawei is better than Google, because Huawei has less suspicion about it than the US government, because we should not conflate a company from a country with the government og that country?

While you are conflating Google and the US government without even so much as acknowledging that?

If we are being fair, we must accept both the USA and China have the means to get data out of their companies, and have done so frequently. If we thus compare either Google and Huawei or USA and China, in both cases we can make out the shinier turd of the two clearly.

Now can we go back to hating both of them please?

path: 0 4907152 4907871 4908164, hotness: undefined, score: 37, children: 19
Ordoabchao 12 points 3 years ago

Exactly this. I am no fan of Google, but it's the devil I know.

path: 0 4907152 4907871 4908164 4908270, hotness: undefined, score: 12, children: 1
hark -1 points 3 years ago

Better the devil sitting right next to you than the devil that is far away in a different country?

path: 0 4907152 4907871 4908164 4908270 4910180, hotness: undefined, score: -1, children: 0
AmberPrince 11 points 3 years ago

Tankies gonna tank.

path: 0 4907152 4907871 4908164 4908257, hotness: undefined, score: 11, children: 2
Redjard 17 points 3 years ago

And they occasionally need to be debated anyway.
Like with conspiracies and religious cults, not debating them allows them to pull people in, while debating them both gives those vulnerable the ability to see the issues with them, and it allows those already believing a pathway to exit.

path: 0 4907152 4907871 4908164 4908257 4908470, hotness: undefined, score: 17, children: 0
RobotToaster 0 points 3 years ago

Anarkiddies gonna anarkiddy.

path: 0 4907152 4907871 4908164 4908257 4976590, hotness: undefined, score: 0, children: 0
xep 7 points 3 years ago

conflate a company from a country with the government of that country

It's actually okay to do this for China, because just about every private enterprise has a CCP cell now. It's important to understand how state capitalism works with the CCP and China.

path: 0 4907152 4907871 4908164 4909885, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 0
Joncash2 -27 points 3 years ago

I'm saying that the only hate for Huawei comes from the US government. Who constantly lies. So using their lies to form an opinion on Huawei is idiotic.. I didn't actually bring google into this at all.

path: 0 4907152 4907871 4908164 4908271, hotness: undefined, score: -27, children: 12
Redjard 17 points 3 years ago

I have seen plenty of independent hate, and my hown hate has certainly developed independently too.
Even in politics other countries have come to the same conclusion, some of which even against US influence, while certainly others where pulled along by them.

Also did you notice that you jsut assumed I was completely influenced by the US, as in that you hold the innate belief that everyone who disagrees on this must obviously be doing so because they fell victim to their propaganda?

I didn’t actually bring google into this at all.

I’d trust a Huawei phone less than I would a Google phone. Much less.

[your comment]

path: 0 4907152 4907871 4908164 4908271 4908399, hotness: undefined, score: 17, children: 11
aniki 21 points 3 years ago
path: 0 4907152 4907871 4908023, hotness: undefined, score: 21, children: 3
netchami 14 points 3 years ago
path: 0 4907152 4907871 4908023 4908209, hotness: undefined, score: 14, children: 2
vaultdweller013 1 point 3 years ago

I misread North Korea as North Kansas and just kinda accepted it.

path: 0 4907152 4907871 4908023 4908209 4928414, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 1
TrickDacy 13 points 3 years ago

I fucking hate tankies. You go so far out of your way to be awful bastards

path: 0 4907152 4907871 4910815, hotness: undefined, score: 13, children: 0
netchami 56 points 3 years ago
path: 0 4908125, hotness: undefined, score: 56, children: 0
MonkderZweite 42 points 3 years ago

They are not wrong.

path: 0 4912640, hotness: undefined, score: 42, children: 0
RobotToaster 34 points 3 years ago

Is it wrong?

path: 0 4907333, hotness: undefined, score: 34, children: 1
draughtcyclist 19 points 3 years ago

Beat me to it, it collects an ungodly amount of PII

path: 0 4907333 4907360, hotness: undefined, score: 19, children: 0
h3mlocke 26 points 3 years ago

LOL Incorrectly

path: 0 4910649, hotness: undefined, score: 26, children: 0
woshang 26 points 3 years ago

Unfortunately, it's true... Monitoring, data collection, implementing ads, and there's so little security for our accounts. Idk, I've been using Google less than ever since ChatGPT came out. And DuckDuckGo.

path: 0 4927120, hotness: undefined, score: 26, children: 4
afunkysongaday 2 points 3 years ago

Sure but what does "enticing users to pay with adult content" mean?

path: 0 4927120 4927190, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 1
Pyroglyph 3 points 3 years ago

Sundar wants them feet pics

path: 0 4927120 4927190 4953812, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0
throws_lemy 0 points 3 years ago

There are rumors circulating, why Israeli intelligence failed to sniff out about Hamas's attack plan, because Hamas used Huawei phones (without gapps)

path: 0 4927120 4933601, hotness: undefined, score: 0, children: 0
Dsklnsadog -2 points 3 years ago

Duck duck go is Microsoft second layer.

path: 0 4927120 4927132, hotness: undefined, score: -2, children: 0
chevy9294 20 points 3 years ago

That means they have good antivirus.

path: 0 4905910, hotness: undefined, score: 20, children: 1
netchami -1 points 3 years ago
path: 0 4905910 4908168, hotness: undefined, score: -1, children: 0
onlinepersona 20 points 3 years ago

I thought Huawei wasn't able / allowed to use Google Services due to the tradewar...

path: 0 4918621, hotness: undefined, score: 20, children: 2
kadu 7 points 3 years ago

They aren't.

But Android is Android, users can install any APK they want

path: 0 4918621 4931205, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 0
FellowEnt 1 point 3 years ago

I have the P30 which is fully Googled up, I think it's just the newer models?!

path: 0 4918621 4933796, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0
blitzkrieg 5 points 3 years ago

Based Huawei

path: 0 4906076, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 3
netchami 3 points 3 years ago
path: 0 4906076 4908144, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 2
astropenguin5 5 points 3 years ago

1%based for calling Google malware 99% bullshit for being probably at least equally bad

path: 0 4906076 4908144 4917297, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 0
hark 3 points 3 years ago

and what will the CCP do with that information? Meanwhile, I know that the NSA, CIA, FBI, local law enforcement, countless advertising agencies, and all sort of other agencies in the US that can actually do things with that information. Even if you don't live in the US, chances are that you live in a country with an extradition treaty with the US.

path: 0 4906076 4908144 4910262, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0
serpineslair 4 points 3 years ago

Someone in my family had this, reluctantly restarted the phone to make the message go away as I found it to be a very dodgy sounding message. Good to know that it won't do any long term damage to hit ignore the next time it pops up.

path: 0 4905928, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 0
technology
technology

@lemmy.world

login for more options
88907
22286
14644

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


go to feed...