Lol whoops

I realise I have Google account, convenience at the cost of privacy. Just irks me that it’s not opt in because if it were, their system would be less useful, and we can’t give people informed consent can we…

You too friend :)

Not sure, perhaps I should change this to “Google Pixel Android 14”

It’s not “available” in the Australian Playstore either, whether it’s installed so far seems to be how old your phone is (rough feeling based on comments). Not yet clear what the pattern is.

What model do you have, out of curiosity?

It’s literally phoning google services, and the package name has google in the name.

It’s a google thing.

Apparently this included on some phones running GrapheneOS according to some other commenters.

I agree with your sentiment, but think we need to urge our governments to regulate the ever-loving god our of these companies.

It’s getting more out of hand, and I don’t think we should just resign ourselves.

Flashing GrapheneOS is not an option for the vast majority of people due to barriers to entry, and potentially essential banking apps not playing nicely.

I’d rather not move on. Heck 'em.

Many thanks for this

No worries mate

Good to hear! And thanks for providing this data point. I may get around to doing a survey, and trying to rope in some people who know their way around android development to see what’s going on here.

Only somewhat. I think I should be able to figure the ADB terminal out as I’ve used it before (on training wheels following instructions).

Yeah overall I’m not too worried for me personally since I have it blocked behind a firewall.

It’s more than google has this installed for many more devices than it should be, and the purpose of it in general.

Makes my blood boil, with how far corporate overreach has come.

They should NOT be allowed to enable extrajudicial enforcement like this. The world worked just fine before this. People had property repossessed, just there’s a legal process to take. And a third party (the judicial system) decided whether to allow enforcement, not the creditor themselves.

Imagine you miss one phone payment (your card expires or something) and then you can’t access you phone, the primary device for most people to manage their digital lives. They’ll just be fucked, and it’ll be the most vulnerable in society who suffer.

It’s so wrong.

I think it’s much preferable that some bad apples just don’t pay and the creditor loses some money, than vulnerable people get their lives fucked over because they missed a single payment.

Yikes. Well at least I feel vindicated that it’s not somehow my “fault” for using Shelter. It’s where I install all my questionable

Why in the world would this be bundled with AOSP? (Or is Graphene not built on stock AOSP, I have no concept of how that works)

No, it may not appear in the appstore (doesn’t for me), but does appear in my apps (when you show system apps)

I’m of the strong opinion that this ought not to be a thing. Even if you stop paying rent, they can kick you out, but there’s a process they need to follow (in Australia anyway).

These software locks means they can do whatever they want, even if they’re in the wrong, and then you’re shit out of luck until you can take them to court, if you even have the time to do it…

It’s so wrong, because of the power imbalance I really think this kind of thing should be railed against at all costs.

Google should not install this shit by default, and sneakily as well.

Check your installed apps (I left an edit in th post where to check). Just because it’s not listen in the Playstore for Australia, doesn’t mean it’s not installed.

I own the phone outright, never on any payment plan or have any creditors.

Pixel 6, it’s unclear when it was installed.

I don’t have a carrier in that sense. I bought it directly from the Australian Google Store outright, and pay prepaid plans for mobile coverage.

It’s 100% mine, unlocked to use with any network it’s compatible with.

Oh this looks great, thanks!

There’s a setting to enable showing system apps in NetGuard.

Reading the docs I don’t believe this is the main reason security checks fail, even if you have GApps installed some apps will refuse to work

How do you go for banking apps on Murena e/OS? This is basically the only thing holding me back from changing my OS to GrapheneOS.

Dual boot is sadly not a thing according to Graphene (and I have idea about such things

I’ll just point out that phone plans (to pay off a phone) and vehicle loans have been a thing and worked fine before this bullshit.

So yes, the level of access ought to remain the same I’d this were banned.

This is what small claims court is for. To me there is no excuse for this.

This may be the case, as I also have a work profile set up via Shelter.

Weird that it’s installed in GrapheneOS also though.

In any case, even if setting up a work profile, it should just not be installed.

A potential backdoor as a ransomware exploit for anyone who has a work profile on their phone, I would guess. Unless there are other apps bundled with android that also lock you out of your phone.

Just following up that it is indeed in my apps list

It’s not specific, it’s in both. And it being installed due to the work profile is speculation on my part.

Thanks for you understanding friendo 🇦🇺

If it tickles your fancy, I once lodged a complaint with the national measurement institute to get a bar to stop selling American pints.

And they now sell it by the mL, beautiful

Not what it says on the google Playstore listing, but yes it’s possible. Considering the connection requests are seemingly for other google APIs. It’s possible NetGuard is flagging the requests to this app incorrectly. (It can’t distinguish being MS office apps either, so it lumps them together, for example)

Doesn’t change the fact the app is installed though, on a phone I own outright, and it’s purposes as claimed by google are gross (in my opinion).

Hero, I just have to get around to doing it 😅 (I will, but grumble, grumble this is why most people don’t bother battling for privacy)

I am a serial complaint lodger, just that I’m much busier than I used to be. I may do it once I figure out what’s going on with it on my phone.

I am at such a loss, because I can see it in NetGuard, and open it’s app details from there, but it doesn’t work even appear in system apps in Shelter.

NetGuard is how I discovered it even existed haha

Just the firewall block at this stage (I’m Tech savvy, but not that tech savvy). I’ll look into it

Just because it’s not in the Playstore, doesn’t mean it’s not installed.

It’s not listed in the Australian Playstore either, yet here we are with it making internet requests.

It’s definitely installed.

So because I’m using a work profile, this gets installed?

I’m using shelter, also, hence have a work profile.

But even so, this shouldn’t be installed.

Nope, directly from the google store.

It says the same thing for me (not listed in the Australian Playstore), but it is installed.

Unfortunately the ACCC gives fewer fucks than you may expect. An airline once cancelled a flight on me and kept the cancellation fee, despite producing no evidence that any government had forced them to cancel the flight (this was during COVID).

ACCC did not care one bit

So while we do have some consumer protection (better than most) I would be surprised if they cared.