Invasive Israeli-founded bloatware is harvesting data from Samsung users in WANA(smex.org)
smex.org
Invasive Israeli-founded bloatware is harvesting data from Samsung users in WANA
https://smex.org/invasive-israeli-software-is-harvesting-data-from-samsung-users-in-wana/
36 comments
Every app uses Appsflyer. I worked for multiple companies and somehow they all use it. Kinda the standard in the industry.
Better drop back to a dumb phone TBH.
Better drop back to a dumb phone TBH.
No phone is dumb internally anymore. Only the UI may make it look like a dumb phone.
What about an old Nokia phone? I think that still stands as a true dumb phone, but yeah it's difficult to find a SIM card that fits there, though.
There's no 4G old Nokia that I know of. I've been using a N86 for the last 10 years. It's a true ship of Theseus - no part of it is from the original phone.
The problem I have is that the 3G networks are all gone and the very few remaining 2G networks that are kept alive for GSM trackers won't provide internet access (at least, no more than a couple of KB per connection, as that's the most GSM trackers use). Not that I need internet much on the phone... but sometimes I need email (ProfiMail) and weather (ForecaWeather - yes, the servers are still alive today!).
When the last 2G network goes out I'll be forced to change it and I have no alternatives.
There are SIM size adapters.
The problem I have is that the 3G networks are all gone and the very few remaining 2G networks that are kept alive for GSM trackers won't provide internet access (at least, no more than a couple of KB per connection, as that's the most GSM trackers use). Not that I need internet much on the phone... but sometimes I need email (ProfiMail) and weather (ForecaWeather - yes, the servers are still alive today!).
When the last 2G network goes out I'll be forced to change it and I have no alternatives.
There are SIM size adapters.
This is from February
And the "Israeli founded" serves what purpose?
And the "Israeli founded" serves what purpose?
Are we already forgetting the Lebanon pager incident? It only happened last year. It seems perfectly rational to question the home country of a spyware company (of all things) when that country has in recent memory infected the supply chain of commodity electronics to booby-trap pagers and walkie talkies to explode and kill their putative enemies.
Let's also not forget that that country's paid spokesmen (both Israeli and American) were joking for months about those explosions, even lobbing it as a threat to their perceived enemies -- on live TV no less!
Let's also not forget that that country's paid spokesmen (both Israeli and American) were joking for months about those explosions, even lobbing it as a threat to their perceived enemies -- on live TV no less!
Middle easterners probably want to know. I'm sure you can appreciate how that's relevant to their politics [1]. Would you have preferred the author had decided for his readers what information they should be interested in?
[1] Iranian state media warns Israel using cell phone tracking to assassinate leaders in Iran - report - https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-85806...
[1] Iranian state media warns Israel using cell phone tracking to assassinate leaders in Iran - report - https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-85806...
It's literally their own governments who buy the software to spy on them.
In the Islamic world, governments privately have relations with Israel and publicly condemn them to keep the populace distracted.
Apart from Iran, who of course are straight up hostile to most everyone except Russia.
In the Islamic world, governments privately have relations with Israel and publicly condemn them to keep the populace distracted.
Apart from Iran, who of course are straight up hostile to most everyone except Russia.
> It's literally their own governments who buy the software to spy on them.
I couldn't find any source on who paid Samsung to preinstall this software - Samsung is very tight-lipped about it. I'd be very interested if you have one.
I couldn't find any source on who paid Samsung to preinstall this software - Samsung is very tight-lipped about it. I'd be very interested if you have one.
> Would you have preferred the author had decided for his readers what information they should be interested in?
I don't understand the implication here, but yes?
Broader point, nationalistic click/flamebait shouldn't be on HN.
I don't understand the implication here, but yes?
Broader point, nationalistic click/flamebait shouldn't be on HN.
Anyone know why it's always Israel with the mobile spyware?
It's not always, but Israel is uniquely positioned for tech companies of this kind thanks to Unit 8200.
Israel has mandatory military service. They grab the most promising teenagers and give them insanely good cybersecurity training on the government's dime. They do their mandatory service, maybe spend a few more years in the unit, then move on to the private sector. Most, if not all, of Israel's tech companies in the cybersecurity/surveillance sector are related to Unit 8200 for this reason.
But also: I think it's fair to say that Israeli spyware gets more media attention party because of geopolitical factors. Similar to Russian or Chinese spyware. I doubt the same headline would catch as much attention if you swapped Israeli-founded with Spanish-founded.
Israel has mandatory military service. They grab the most promising teenagers and give them insanely good cybersecurity training on the government's dime. They do their mandatory service, maybe spend a few more years in the unit, then move on to the private sector. Most, if not all, of Israel's tech companies in the cybersecurity/surveillance sector are related to Unit 8200 for this reason.
But also: I think it's fair to say that Israeli spyware gets more media attention party because of geopolitical factors. Similar to Russian or Chinese spyware. I doubt the same headline would catch as much attention if you swapped Israeli-founded with Spanish-founded.
It's not, but you hear about them more often because they're America's attack dog. AFAIK China has their own mobile spyware too, and the US has several private companies that make spyware too.
Smartphones are juicy targets. Most people have one, originally by choice and now by social mandate. And people have a habit of loading lots of personal data on them - at a minimum, just by using the location features on the device, which produces a near-perfect location tracking log. Lots of governments would love nothing more than to have access to telepathy - i.e. actual mind reading - to figure out which citizens were loyal, disloyal, engaged in criminal behavior, etc. And having a full unencrypted phone backup is basically a mind rip.
The only countries that aren't interested in mobile spyware are countries not big enough to afford a spyware engineering org.
Smartphones are juicy targets. Most people have one, originally by choice and now by social mandate. And people have a habit of loading lots of personal data on them - at a minimum, just by using the location features on the device, which produces a near-perfect location tracking log. Lots of governments would love nothing more than to have access to telepathy - i.e. actual mind reading - to figure out which citizens were loyal, disloyal, engaged in criminal behavior, etc. And having a full unencrypted phone backup is basically a mind rip.
The only countries that aren't interested in mobile spyware are countries not big enough to afford a spyware engineering org.
NSO group are a particularly successful Israeli spyware company, but there are others. For example Pars is Turkish.
It's not just Israel. It's just not newsworthy if it's not Israel.
Somehow "invasive Mountain View bloatware is harvesting data from Samsung users in the US" doesn't get the same attention.
It certainly has a valence if you're in Gaza, etc., and this software is typically found in phones in the region.
I routinely see posts of various shitfuckeries in the home page of hn, mostly from big tech or other companies
Which EU countries are comparable in militarized mobile spyware?
Not sure, but they are really important in the Ads scene (yeah those ads). You got Ironsource and Applovin, both from IL. I think they are pretty talented in these things.
Ex Mossad, Shin Bet and Aman guys going into the private sector. In other countries, intelligence services people usually stay around for the long run. In Israel, most do it for a few years before moving to the private sector, and taking those talents with them. It's also the case with Russia and China - there's just more money for these guys in the private sector, while national service ensures they don't get treated any more exceptionally and obtain very little benefit for staying on.
you know what they said about Prussia, it's a military that happens to have a country attached to it, Israel is sort of like that but with an internet connection
Israeli-founded very much buries the lede of US owned (ironSource/Unity).
A more recent article was discussed here:
Samsung embeds IronSource spyware app on phones across WANA - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44334167 - June 2025 (480 comments)
Samsung embeds IronSource spyware app on phones across WANA - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44334167 - June 2025 (480 comments)
I figure Samsung too is fully on the do-not-use list now after all.
They operate in a closed space called mobile attribution of which only a few companies are competitors. Appsflyer is by far the largest. https://appgoblin.info/companies/types/ad-attribution
They are probably in 20 or more apps on your phone. https://appgoblin.com/companies/appsflyer.com