Per one tech forum this week: “Google has quietly installed an app on all Android devices called ‘Android System SafetyCore’. It claims to be a ‘security’ application, but whilst running in the background, it collects call logs, contacts, location, your microphone, and much more making this application ‘spyware’ and a HUGE privacy concern. It is strongly advised to uninstall this program if you can. To do this, navigate to 'Settings’ > 'Apps’, then delete the application.”
Per one tech forum this week
Stop spreading misinformation.
To quote the most salient post
The app doesn’t provide client-side scanning used to report things to Google or anyone else. It provides on-device machine learning models usable by applications to classify content as being spam, scams, malware, etc. This allows apps to check content locally without sharing it with a service and mark it with warnings for users.
Which is a sorely needed feature to tackle problems like SMS scams
if the cellular carriers were forced to verify that caller-ID (or SMS equivalent) was accurate SMS scams would disappear (or at least be weaker). Google shouldn’t have to do the job of the carriers, and if they wanted to implement this anyway they should let the user choose what service they want to perform the task similar to how they let the user choose which “Android system WebView” should be used.
Carriers don’t care. They are selling you data. They don’t care how it’s used. Google is selling you a phone. Apple held down the market for a long time for being the phone that has some of the best security. As an android user that makes me want to switch phones. Not carriers.
No, that wouldn’t make much difference. I don’t think I’ve seen a real world attack via SMS that even bothered to “forge” the from-field. People are used to getting texts from unknown numbers.
And how would you possibly implement this supposed “caller-id” for a field that doesn’t even have to be set to a number?
caller id is the thing that tells you the number. it isn’t cheap to forge, but it’s the only way a scan could reasonably effect anyone with more than half a brain. there is never a reason to send information to an unknown SMS number, or click on a link from a text message from an unknown number.
Why do you need machine learning for detecting scams?
Is someone in 2025 trying to help you out of the goodness of their heart? No. Move on.
Blaming the victim solves nothing.
Scamming is a rapidly growing industry that is becoming more professional and specialized all the time. Anyone can be scammed.
If you want to talk money then it is in businesses best interest that money from their users is being used on their products, not being scammed through the use of their products.
Secondly machine learning or algorithms can detect patterns in ways a human can’t. In some circles I’ve read that the programmers themselves can’t decipher in the code how the end result is spat out, just that the inputs will guide it. Besides the fact that scammers can circumvent any carefully laid down antispam, antiscam, anti-virus through traditional software, a learning algorithm will be magnitudes harder to bypass. Or easier. Depends on the algorithm
I don’t know the point of the first paragraph…scams are bad? Yes? Does anyone not agree? (I guess scammers)
For the second we are talking in the wild abstract, so I feel comfortable pointing out that every automated system humanity has come up with so far has pulled in our own biases and since ai models are trained by us, this should be no different. Second, if the models are fallible, you cannot talk about success without talking false positives. I don’t care if it blocks every scammer out there if it also blocks a message from my doctor. Until we have data on consensus between these new algorithms and desired outcomes, it’s pointless to claim they are better at X.
You don’t need advanced scanning technology running on every device with access to every single bit of data you ever seen to detect scam. You need telco operator to stop forwarding forged messages headers and… that’s it. Cheap, efficient, zero risk related to invasion of privacy through a piece of software you did not need but was put there “for your own good”.
I will perhaps be nitpicking, but… not exactly, not always. People get their shit hacked all the time due to poor practices. And then those hacked things can send emails and texts and other spam all they want, and it’ll not be forged headers, so you still need spam filtering.
If the app did what op is claiming then the EU would have a field day fining google.
graphene folks have a real love for the word misinformation (and FUD, and brigading). That’s not you under there👻, Daniel, is it?
After 5 years of his
anticshateful bullshit lies, I think I can genuinely say that word triggers me.And what exactly does that have to do with GrapheneOS?
Please, read the links. They are the security and privacy experts when it comes to Android. That’s their explanation of what this Android System SafetyCore actually is.
Have you even read the article you posted? It mentions these posts by GrapheneOS
So is this really just a local AI model? Or is it something bigger? My S25 Ultra has the app but it hasn’t used any battery or data.
I mean the grapheneos devs say it is. Are they going to lie.
Yes, absolutely, and regularly, and without shame.
But not usually about technical stuff.
People don’t seem to understand the risks presented by normalizing client-side scanning on closed source devices. Think about how image recognition works. It scans image content locally and matches to keywords or tags, describing the person, objects, emotions, and other characteristics. Even the rudimentary open-source model on an immich deployment on a Raspberry Pi can process thousands of images and make all the contents searchable with alarming speed and accuracy.
So once similar image analysis is done on a phone locally, and pre-encryption, it is trivial for Apple or Google to use that for whatever purposes their use terms allow. Forget the iCloud encryption backdoor. The big tech players can already scan content on your device pre-encryption.
And just because someone does a traffic analysis of the process itself (safety core or mediaanalysisd or whatever) and shows it doesn’t directly phone home, doesn’t mean it is safe. The entire OS is closed source, and it needs only to backchannel small amounts of data in order to fuck you over.
Remember the original justification for clientside scanning from Apple was “detecting CSAM”. Well they backed away from that line of thinking but they kept all the client side scanning in iOS and Mac OS. It would be trivial for them to flag many other types of content and furnish that data to governments or third parties.
Google says that SafetyCore “provides on-device infrastructure for securely and privately performing classification to help users detect unwanted content
Cheers Google but I’m a capable adult, and able to do this myself.
I didn’t have it in my app drawer but once I went to this link, it showed as installed. I un-installed it ASAP.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.safetycore&hl=en-US
I also reported it as hostile and inappropriate. I am sure Google will do fuck all with that report but I enjoy being petty sometimes
thank you for posting this. it’s not yet installed on my phone for some reason, but i will be checking this page every couple days to make sure it stays that way.
Thnx for this, just uninstalled it, google are arseholes
Thanks for bringing this up, first I’ve heard of it. Not present on my GrapheneOS pixel, present on stock.
I suppose I should encourage pixel owners to switch from stock to graphene, I know which decide I rather spend time using. GrapheneOS one of course.
I’ve got a Pixel 8 Pro and I’m currently using the stock OS. Anything in particular that you miss with Graphene OS?
I still use a stock pixel for work related and daily usage, but the alternatives I’ve found between F-Droid and Aurora store I’ve never felt lacking.
Maybe I’ll finish the switch fully in the coming months.
I switched from a Samsung to a Pixel a couple years ago. I instantly installed GrapheneOS and have loved it ever since. It generally works perfectly normally with the huge background benefit of security and privacy. The only issues I have had is one of my banking apps doesn’t work (but the others work fine) and lack of RCS (but I’m sure it’s coming). In short, highly highly recommend. I will be sticking with GOS for the long term!
I’ve looked into it.l briefly. Did you have any issues switching? I’m concerned about how some apps I need would function.
I switched from a Samsung to a Pixel a couple years ago. I instantly installed GrapheneOS and have loved it ever since. It generally works perfectly normally with the huge background benefit of security and privacy. The only issues I have had is one of my banking apps doesn’t work (but the others work fine) and lack of RCS (but I’m sure it’s coming). In short, highly highly recommend. I will be sticking with GOS for the long term!
I did a fair amount of research before the switch to find alternatives to Google services, some I’ve replaced, others I felt were too much of a hassle for my phone usage.
I’ve kept my original pixel stock, the hardest part about switching this one over was plugging it in and following the instructions.
I’m hoping to get rid of my stock OS pixel soon, it would appear my bank hasn’t blocked it’s app on Graphene, unlike Uber.
For the rest I’ll either buy a cheap af shitbox to use purely for banking and Uber (if it comes to that).
If you’ve any other questions I’m happy to help find then answers with you, feel free to DM me.
Uber works on GrapheneOS
I’ll give it another try then! Last attempt it wouldn’t open.
I’m traumatized by trying to use banking apps on lineage… don’t think I’ll risk it until I get a backup phone
I just un-installed it
Anyone know what Android System Intelligence does? Should that be un-installed as well?
Jesus Christ they’re like bed bugs
Is it too much to ask that my phone only contain the shit that makes it work, and not anything else?
Its a classic example of using “BUT THE CHILDREN” to be invasive dickheads.
And it immediately reminds me of the story of the guy whose kid had a rash in the diaper area during covid, and the pediatrician requested pictures to remotely diagnose and treat, which google flagged as child pornography and called the cops on him, and banned/locked him out of everything (phone number, emails, pictures, etc etc) because he had everything on google.
and no amount of the police, or even doctor, insisting the pictures were medical necessity and not child pornography would convince google to restore his acount or even let him recover his number/email/pictures/etc.
The fact that Google refused to restore his account even after the police that they called said there was no child porn pisses me off to no end. They are officially allowed to close your account for no reason other than they don’t like you.
not only refused to restore the account, but still insisted he was a pedophile producing child pornography despite the cops and doctors and every other authority involved insisting he wasnt, and that the images were medically necessary, and refuse to even give/let him get a backup of all his family pictures, emails, etc.
and theres gonna be a lot more of it once this stupid invasive spyware rolls out and gets going.
If our parents and grandparents photos were digitized, they’d all probably be labled child porn producers, because almost every parent/grandparent/etc has some picture of their newborn getting a sink bath or some other completely harmless, and otherwise normal photo.
and I think its so they can artificially inflate their numbers. They arent doing shit to stop actual child exploitation, so they hammer hard on this shit so they can make a big show of “cracking down and stopping” it.
First result of DDG search, explains it quite well: https://www.androidauthority.com/android-system-intelligence-3325187/
You can safely uninstall System Intelligence if you don’t need it. My phone has worked fine without it in the past year.
I’m not seeing it on my S22, but I am seeing system intelligence. What is it?
Well then I hope they like seeing my butthole.
My older brother swipes through your phone’s photos without asking, so I put some colonoscopy pictures in there. He hasn’t tried to look at photos on my phone since.
Oh Google what have you done to yourself.
laughs in GrapheneOS
I’d that what’s killing my fucking battery like crazy lately?
Now that you say that, my battery was draining fast the past couple of weeks. It would last maybe a day. It lasts 2 days again now.
same here, i was wondering why my Op12r was draining like super fast, for a phone touthing 2+days battery(and im not even playing games or videos on it), yet it was draining as fast as an old pixel phone.
I’m curious about this. I’ve got a Pixel 6 and noticed that the battery started going to shit about a month or so ago? I couldn’t find an install date for SafetyCore, but it was listed in my apps. I’ve uninstalled it now. It’ll be interesting to see if that was causing it.
How do you uninstall it?
It doesn’t show in the app drawer, but I found it via the all apps in Settings.
Go to the Settings App > Apps > “See all XX apps”. It’s called Android System SafetyCore, so it should be close to the top of the list. Tap on it and select Uninstall.
Well it looks like I don’t have it. Which is good, unless its hidden and unremovable. My battery app reports up to like 60% of power usage but nothing else. That means that some stupid app in the background is running down my battery for no good reason.
you can search in your settings/app managment(im using a onplus12r though
Fuck these cunt
It didn’t appear in my apps list so I thought it wasn’t installed. But when I searched for the app name it appears. So be aware.
How did you search for it? Search bar in settings?
Play Store, it doesn’t show in local search results, but they list it as installed.
Even worse, i found this comment in the app store and it did the same on my device :
Installed automatically without my knowledge, no notification, only found it because of a friend’s post, and even then, you only see it through a link, it doesn’t come up in your app list or a search of the Google play store. I thought it felt like my battery was draining a little quicker too, which is apparently also something noticed in connection to having this app. Uninstalling.
The app can be found here :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.safetycore
.Oh right, maybe I noticed because of Storage Isolation, that’s an app which allows you to restrict folder access of other apps, and it prompts me to select actions for every newly installed app. So it casually prompts me whenever google pushes a new, hidden installation.
i believe this application hides in different ways on different devices and maybe it is also different by regions making it even worse to detect and explain to someone else. So, i wouldn’t be surprised if you told me you found it in a different way than how it was explained in my comment.
.
also in the Forbes article :
Per one tech forum (
https://gbatemp.net/threads/psa-to-all-android-users-google-quietly-installs-spyware-on-android-devices.667542/GBAtemp.net - The Independent Video Game Community
)
this week: “Google has quietly installed an app on all Android devices called ‘Android System SafetyCore’. It claims to be a ‘security’ application, but whilst running in the background, it collects call logs, contacts, location, your microphone, and much more making this application ‘spyware’ and a HUGE privacy concern. It is strongly advised to uninstall this program if you can.… →
Remove the following 2 spywares :
1).
Android System SafetyCore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.safetycore
2).
Android System Key Verifier: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.contactkeysYep, I’ve removed both of those the second they showed up on my phone uninvited. Even as a non-US citizen, with the current state of their government, I definitely don’t want any corporate collecting data on myself.
i was able to find it on my oneplus, and i also noticed, why is my oneplus 12r draining so fast?
you can look it up on your app managment settings too, search for it there.
Found nothing
On my settings screen I have a search bar at the top
Tried that, found nothing.
More information: It’s been rolling out to Android 9+ users since November 2024 as a high priority update. Some users are reporting it installs when on battery and off wifi, unlike most apps.
App description on Play store: SafetyCore is a Google system service for Android 9+ devices. It provides the underlying technology for features like the upcoming Sensitive Content Warnings feature in Google Messages that helps users protect themselves when receiving potentially unwanted content. While SafetyCore started rolling out last year, the Sensitive Content Warnings feature in Google Messages is a separate, optional feature and will begin its gradual rollout in 2025. The processing for the Sensitive Content Warnings feature is done on-device and all of the images or specific results and warnings are private to the user.
Description by google Sensitive Content Warnings is an optional feature that blurs images that may contain nudity before viewing, and then prompts with a “speed bump” that contains help-finding resources and options, including to view the content. When the feature is enabled, and an image that may contain nudity is about to be sent or forwarded, it also provides a speed bump to remind users of the risks of sending nude imagery and preventing accidental shares. - https://9to5google.com/android-safetycore-app-what-is-it/
So looks like something that sends pictures from your messages (at least initially) to Google for an AI to check whether they’re “sensitive”. The app is 44mb, so too small to contain a useful ai and I don’t think this could happen on-phone, so it must require sending your on-phone data to Google?
I guess the app then downloads the required models
Hope they like all my dick pics
Don’t worry they won’t!
/Burn
Thanks. Just uninstalled. What a cunts
I uninstalled it, and a couple of days later, it reappeared on my phone.
Do we have any proof of it doing anything bad?
Taking Google’s description of what it is it seems like a good thing. Of course we should absolutely assume Google is lying and it actually does something nefarious, but we should get some proof before picking up the pitchforks.
Google is always 100% lying.
There are too many instances to list and I’m not spending 5 hours collecting examples for you.
They removed don’t be evil long time agoThey removed don’t be evil long time ago
See, this is why I like proof. If you go to Google’s Code of Conduct today, or any other archived version, you can see yourself that it was never removed. Yet everyone believed the clickbait articles claiming so. What happened is they moved it from the header to the footer, clickbait media reported that as “removed” and everyone ran with it, even though anyone can easily see it’s not true, and it takes 30 seconds to verify, not even 5 hours.
Years later you are still repeating something that was made up just because you heard it a lot.
Of course Google is absolutely evil and the phrase was always meaningless whether it’s there or not, but we can’t just make up facts just because it fits our world view. And we have to be aware of confirmation bias. Yeah Google removing “don’t be evil” sounds about right for them, right? It makes perfect sense. But it just plain didn’t happen.
Why check any sources first when you can just blindly rage and assume the worst?
Maybe you should given your closing sentence is incorrect and just bolsters the fact we shouldn’t blindly take everything we see at face value
Whether the people at Google who did this knows they are evil or thinks they are not evil doesn’t really even matter. Having a phone app that automatically scans all your photos should scare the shit out of you. At the very least it wastes your battery and slows down your phone.
If it provided a feature to automatically block incoming dick pics, which Google claims it’s for, was fully local, and only scanned incoming messages, not my own gallery, which is what Google claims, I would likely find it useful. There is nothing wrong with the idea in general.
At the very least it wastes your battery
Again, if it’s an optional feature that you can choose to turn on or off, there is nothing wrong with that.
