this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2025

233 points (97.9% liked)

Technology

68672 readers

3834 users here now

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

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related news or articles.
Be excellent to each other!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
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.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

L3s@lemmy.world

enu@lemmy.world

technopagan@lemmy.world

L4s@lemmy.world

L3s@hackingne.ws

L4s@hackingne.ws

233

Governments identify dozens of Android apps bundled with spyware. (www.ncsc.gov.uk)

submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by Tea@programming.dev to c/technology@lemmy.world

13 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Apps hiding malicious functions collect data – including location, audio and camera – which could facilitate surveillance and harassment.

top 13 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 70 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

And nowhere to be found is an actual list of affected apps - only a couple examples.

Great job, NCSC 🤨👍

[–] xodoh74984@lemmy.world 68 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Isn't every app that's not open source assumed to be spyware nowadays?

Wake me up when this sort of thing is actually illegal. Preferably punishable with jail time.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 68 points 5 days ago (1 children)

This isn’t that. This isn’t “let us collect data on you so we can aggregate it and monetize it, it’s buried in the EULA.”

This is state-sponsored actual malware being used to identify, target, track specific individuals.

[+] bizarroland@fedia.io -43 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Yeah, and?

Do you honestly believe there's a single person on lemmy with enough gravitas to be worth being tracked by the elite?

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 22 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Maybe. The bad actor here seems to be the government of China, and the linked page says:

The individuals most at risk include anyone connected to: Taiwanese independence; Tibetan rights; Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in or from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; democracy advocacy, including Hong Kong, and the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

I can imagine them casting a wide net.

[–] ILoveUnions@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

#1 reason I'll never visit china, as much as there seems to be amazing things to see there

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Pretty sure US still does three hops of surveillance.

If you or any friend you have speaks to anyone at all in a foreign country you are put on a list for surveillance.

I had a Jordanian friend in college and I have a close friend who still keeps in touch with him now that he is back in Jordan. I always assumed that put me on a list based on the three hops method.

Three hops being:

Hop 1: Main surveillance target Hop 2: Social network of main surveillance target Hop 3: Social network of anyone in main surveillance target's social network.

So if you are the main surveillance target, friends of your friends are also targetted.

US surveils people for what are otherwise pretty inocuous reasons.

[–] darkkite@lemmy.ml 9 points 4 days ago

yes, absolutely. plently of programmers here with various agendas

[–] systemglitch@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Most definitely. At least a few, but not many.

[–] Trihilis@ani.social 49 points 4 days ago (3 children)

install app

"Do you agree to share your information with 289 of our partners or opt out by going through a list and deselecting them one by one"?

Yeah any app that asks this is guaranteed spyware.

Also, use F-Droid as much as possible. It's not perfect but still miles better than the play store

[–] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

Even Aurora store vets all the apps for trackers. Google just take the money and serve up malware.

At least these days it's farily obvious when an app is looking at your location or listening in with the mic.

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 4 days ago

F-Droid is my go-to for anything possible. If I find something I can selfhost and has an app, I make sure the app can be found in F-Droid (or even just an APK shipped in the repo that can be managed with Obtainium), or else I lose interest.

[–] hornedfiend@sopuli.xyz 2 points 4 days ago

cries looking at iphone remembering the good old “free” days.