You can uninstall it and install this so that Google can’t get it back on your system.

https://github.com/daboynb/Safetycore-placeholder

I once stumbled upon this app automatically installed on the phone I happen to have paid for (because at this point I doubt I could call this piece of metallic tile “my phone” and suing Google Inc. for them to refund me this phone would be as successful as if I tried to push and move a certain Mountain View building from its place with my own muscles). Shortly after that, it seems to have vanished from the list of apps as mysteriously as it initially appeared, either it uninstalled itself or it was changed names.

In any case, as soon as I realized that presence and realized I wouldn’t have an “uninstall” option without turning on options that would straightforwardly break banking apps and government apps (gov.br the Brazilian app for everything citizen-related) I was compelled to use, I started filling the phone’s gallery with all sorts of potentially-triggering stuff I either find online or (mainly) make myself: dark art including FNAF-like jump scares, haunted/cursed artifacts and occult/ritualistic imagery, photos and videos depicting snakes and scorpions, lots of Memento Mori including photos of cemeteries and tombstones, archaeological skeletons, buzzards eating animal carcasses in the wilderness, as well as media of my own cut wr… I mean, uhm, media of my own cute wrathful owl I sculpted on Blender. Yeah, several different 3d rendered scenes and short animation videos as well, especially scenes in which she’s performing chases and huntings… Not to mention the plethora of owl photos and videos, many of which are birdwatching of them catching and eating prey on nature, in potentially gory settings (i.e. the unfiltered, untamed nature who doesn’t care about our anthropocentric definitions of good and evil).

So if Google decides to start “protecting me from (my own) sensitive imagery”, their clanker is essentially going to have a hard time having to go through gibibytes of media and potentially wiping the whole device as I made sure to fill the entire storage (even non-media things too, such as using provoking nicknames for fictional contacts like a contact card for “Inanna”, as well as odd descriptions for bank transactions such as “my soul belongs to Ereshkigal”) with purposefully sensitive content. If they do that, I’ll then have something more concrete to sue them for: religious intolerance, as it’s all representing of my left-hand path spirituality.

And with all this I leave this one absurdist idea on how to try and boycott the corporate nanny (and surveillance). A phone gallery full of sensitive items (not nudes, but dark/provocative art purposefully built to trigger similar nannying responses) will hopefully overwhelm their servers, shall they offload the computing to their data centers. If this doesn’t overwhelm their servers, at least the techbros and their clankers are going to have an interesting time when scrolling through legal-yet-disturbing content they hoarded from Android users’ phones.

[email protected]

Time to start shooting nudes on film I guess.

I can see a promising market for ‘dumb’ point-and-shoot digital cameras reemerging.

• Doesn’t automatically upload your pictures to train AI on, no internet-based privacy risks whatsoever

• No AI nanny telling you that your pictures are too naughty

• Never needs updates, can never be enshittified by new updates

• No risk of the government getting their hands on your pictures, unless they physically confiscate the device

• Can never be hacked without physical access to the camera

• Doesn’t listen to you or watch you or otherwise spy on you

• Most models have easy to change user-replaceable batteries

• Most models are compatible with SD cards for easily upgradeable storage

• Can take advantage of a larger lens and more adjustable focus/zoom to take better pictures (Even a relatively cheap digital camera could potentially take better pictures than the ultimate flagship phones that cost 4-figures.)

Sphynx cats trigger it and you get an unwarranted alert that Google is very disappointed.

Reportedly, the app uses an on-device machine learning model to classify the content.

Using your shiny new phone to train AI…

For now its only supposed to check Google Messages, so not if you use a different text app.

But one vulnerability already is side loaded versions with super high version numbers so they won’t be auto updated. Those will scan everything and do whatever with it. Considering the apps point is to scan for nudes, likely sending all your nudes to the hacker.

I’ve got a Pixel 9 I keep for development and uninstalled that system app a few months ago. It’s still gone. Maybe updates are reinstalling it but saying that it cannot be uninstalled or removed is a lie.

Where’s the “android is more free than iOS” people now‽

Edit: Still salty I see (from the downvotes).