I installed NetGuard about a month ago and blocked all internet to apps, unless they’re on a whitelist. No notifications from this particular system app (that can’t be disabled) until recently when it started making internet connection requests to google servers. Does anyone know when this became a thing?

Edit 2: I bought my Pixel 6 phone outright, directly from Google’s Australian store. I have no creditors.

Were the courts not enough control for creditors? Since when are they allowed to lock you out of your purchased property without a court order?

I don’t even live in the US, so what the actual fuck?

Edit 1: You can check it’s installed (stock Pixel 6 android 14) Settings > Apps > All Apps > three dot menu, Show system > search “DeviceLockController”.

I highly recommend getting NetGuard, you can enable pro features via their website if you have the APK for as low as 0.10€, but donate more, because it’s amazing. You can also purchase via Google Play store.

  • coffeeClean@infosec.pub
    15·
    8 months ago

    The fun aspect to this is that some banks have forced customers to use an Android for all their banking ops. So:

    ① You’re late paying a bill
    ② Creditor locks your phone
    ③ You cannot access your bank to make the payment because your phone is locked

    Brilliant.

  • BrikoX@lemmy.zipEnglish
    11·
    8 months ago

    In 2020 Google claimed it was supposed to be limited to a single region in partnership with a single carrier. And was never meant to be put up on Play Store.

    A spokesperson from Google reached out to clarify some details about the Device Lock Controller app. To start with, Google says they launched this app in collaboration with a Kenyan carrier called Safaricom.

    Google has confirmed that the Device Lock Controller app should not be listed on the Google Play Store for users in the U.S., and they will work to take down the listing.

    Source: https://www.xda-developers.com/google-device-lock-controller-banks-payments/

    Of course, it was a lie since it’s still on Play Store an of today and in use.

    • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldOP
      5·
      8 months ago

      It must be globally, I’m in Australia. What utter bullshit, since I would have never known if it weren’t for my NetGuard firewall app.

      • noorbeast@lemmy.zipEnglish
        5·
        8 months ago

        Being Australian this is likely one to report to the ACCC, as Aussies at least have basic consumer protection, though that get murky with overseas tech entities.

        • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldOP
          4·
          8 months ago

          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.

          • MalReynolds@slrpnk.netEnglish
            3·
            8 months ago

            It’s 5 minutes out of your life to try, as an aussie, please do, for charity if nothing else, who knows, you might benefit…

            • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldOP
              1·
              8 months ago

              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.

                • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldOP
                  3·
                  8 months ago

                  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

        • MeetInPotatoes@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          8 months ago

          though that get murky with overseas tech entities.

          I mostly agree, but you gotta admit the EU has been sticking it to the tech giants lately.

      • No1@aussie.zone
        0·
        8 months ago

        I’m in Australia, and when I search for Device Lock Controller in Play Store, it says “This app is not available in your region”

        This happens on 2 separate devices from different manufacturers. Both devices were purchased in Australia and have Australian ROMs

        • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldOP
          2·
          8 months ago

          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.

        • Baku@aussie.zoneEnglish
          2·
          8 months ago

          Also in Australia and it shows that to me as well

          But going into my app list and showing system does show it

    • Gerowen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      8 months ago

      I’m using CalyxOS and it’s pre-installed as a system app, so this seems like something that’s being built in at the AOSP level of development.

    • Ledivin@lemmy.world
      1·
      8 months ago

      Of course, it was a lie since it’s still on Play Store an of today and in use.

      FWIW, I just searched it up and it’s listed as unavailable in my region (USA) 🤷‍♂️ so at the very least, they scoped it down a little bit

      • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldOP
        2·
        8 months ago

        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.

        • Baku@aussie.zoneEnglish
          2·
          8 months ago

          It’s not just you, it’s phoning home for me too. Pixel 7, also Australia, bought outright from officeworks. I don’t log network reqs so I don’t know exacts, but it’s using 25kb every 3 days or so, so it’s doing something.

      • BrikoX@lemmy.zipEnglish
        1·
        8 months ago

        So they region locked it from US, but it can still be pre-installed as a system app from AOSP. And it’s available in EU, while was meant to be in Kenya only.

      • fishos@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        8 months ago

        Checked my pixel 6 and it’s on mine. Might not be in the store for everyone, but it’s installed on my owned device.

    • Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml
      1·
      8 months ago

      I’m surprised it would be on the play store since presumably if you were a carrier or creditor of some kind you want this installed in a pretty clandestine way and wouldn’t want to draw attention to it by having an app store listing.

      • dev_null@lemmy.ml
        2·
        8 months ago

        I’d assume they want to be able to update it and that’s why it needs a store listing.

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.comEnglish
        2·
        8 months ago

        Being on the play store means it can be updated and managed like a normal app and not stuck on whatever version shipped with the OS

  • Night Monkey@sh.itjust.works
    8·
    8 months ago

    This type of tech is already being put into vehicles as well. I used to get laughed at 20 years ago when I predicted this. Nobody is laughing anymore. If anything, they just accept it.

    • nymwit@lemm.ee
      3·
      8 months ago

      your self driving car will just drive itself back to the lot when your payment is late

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
      01·
      8 months ago

      People laughed at Stallman, too. But I’m not comparing you to him. He’s apparently a real POS.

      • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
        3·
        8 months ago

        Nah, he’s difficult to work with for sure, and rather extremist, but unfortunately he is a lot of right on the money. I wouldn’t call that a pos

        • lemmesay@discuss.tchncs.de
          2·
          8 months ago

          most of this “he’s a pos” comes from the misconceptions about him. he has a certain fixation to the vocabulary, and he often corrects others for it. then those people take the “attempt to correct” as “support” for the debate itself.

          • billgamesh@lemmy.ml
            12·
            8 months ago

            I think this is an extremely generous take. For anyone not in the loop, he gets called POS for famously weighing in on discussions of pedophelia by saying children 13+ aren’t children so it’s not pedophelia.

            I think this goes beyond being bad at knowing when to correct semantics

            • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
              3·
              8 months ago

              I think that even that is more bad phrasing on his end than him being a pedophile. Beyond weird opinions, there is no evidence at all that he is a pedo

              • billgamesh@lemmy.ml
                12·
                8 months ago

                But there is evidence that he defends it, and that he refused to back down after being called out. He is not a good person to look up to, and willfully makes harmful public statements, and willfully stabds by them. In other words, kinda a POS

              • billgamesh@lemmy.ml
                0·
                8 months ago

                I do too, but I think being that tone deaf after being called out says a lot, and I think it’s pretty good reason to not make blanket endorsements for his statements/beliefs

                • lemmesay@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
                  2·
                  8 months ago

                  he wasn’t tone dead in that case you mentioned. he has since changed his thoughts about it.

                  Many years ago I posted that I could not see anything wrong about sex between an adult and a child, if the child accepted it.

                  Through personal conversations in recent years, I’ve learned to understand how sex with a child can harm per psychologically. This changed my mind about the matter: I think adults should not do that. I am grateful for the conversations that enabled me to understand why

                • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
                  1·
                  8 months ago

                  Sure. The only “blanket” statements I’m willing to give are limited to his work on Free Software. His statements on pretty much everything else should probably just be ignored.

            • Alph4d0g@discuss.tchncs.de
              2·
              8 months ago

              Not that it excuses his behavior but isn’t he on the autism spectrum? People on the spectrum sometimes have no filter and are very literal. Like saying a 13 year old is more adolescent than child.

  • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldOP
    6·
    8 months ago

    Requests the app made today.

    This is my phone I own outright, by the way. I don’t have any creditors.

    Update for those curious:

    • Refurbished Refurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org
      5·
      8 months ago

      adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.devicelockcontroller

      If you’re using Shelter, then in addition to that command, replace --user 0 with --user 10

      You don’t need root to do this. You can also uninstall other bloatware using this same method.

      • bigkahuna1986@lemmy.ml
        4·
        8 months ago

        I tried this on a Pixel 7 and am getting:

        panther:/ $ pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.devicelockcontroller

        Failure [DELETE_FAILED_INTERNAL_ERROR]

        I also tried disable and got:

        Cannot disable a protected package: com.google.android.devicelockcontroller

      • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldOP
        3·
        8 months ago

        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)

      • _tezz@lemmy.world
        1·
        8 months ago

        New to this depth of phone administration, where are you entering this command? Is there a developer CLI I should be looking for or is this done with a third party app or something?

    • codapine@lemm.ee
      1·
      8 months ago

      Mvp comment there. I checked mine and I am in the US, on a phone I originally bought on credit. I do not have that app installed. Go figure. 🤷‍♂️

      Definitely worth checking out your app list to make sure. I wonder if it accidentally came downstream from AOSP into the alt ROMs, and that’s why it’s not in my stock, proprietary, US market, flagship Google pixel device.

      • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldOP
        1·
        8 months ago

        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.

    • Salix@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      8 months ago

      I find it interesting that yours is com.google.android.devicelockcontroller.

      I checked mine on GrapheneOS and it looks like it’s the AOSP version of the package: com.android.devicelockcontroller

  • Goldmaster@lemmy.ml
    6·
    8 months ago

    What’s stopping someone from enabling debug mode, downloading adb tools and running pm uninstall --user0 then the package name? Surely with the app removed, the app can’t brick your phone. Or running a custom rom like lineage or graphine os?

    • FriendBesto@lemmy.ml
      2·
      7 months ago

      My guess is they are leveraging the techninical and technology illiteracy of the average consumer to not only not know this can be done but to even know how to even look it up. I have done some tech support for people that I have known for 20 years here and there and I am still oustanded at how little people know about tech outside social media sites, or have but only the most superficial knowledge on anything outside their work related applications. Many, many People just can’t do their own research today specially, or so it seems in the aggregate. Unless perhaps if it is a hobby.

      Also, perhaps some of these people may have shitty phones that may not have an option to install a custom ROM, too. Assuming they even know want a custom ROM even is.

  • lemmyingly@lemm.ee
    83·
    8 months ago

    Since when are they allowed to lock you out of your purchased property without a court order?

    That’s an oxymoron. Creditors have the ability to lock you out of a device you haven’t paid for yet. Standard terms and conditions in B2C and B2B; you don’t own it until you’ve paid for it in full.

    Also locking you out of a device you don’t own yet is cheaper than taking you to court.

    • YⓄ乙 @aussie.zoneEnglish
      32·
      8 months ago

      Anything that connects to internet is something that you don’t own. Companies can change their T&C anytime and take control of your device if it connects to internet. Hence smart people never buy anything that connects to internet.

  • alonely0@programming.dev
    4·
    8 months ago

    Yeah it’s because they ship the same OS image for everyone, be it US on a carrier plan or otherwise. Google services has complete control over your device (more than just locking it down), and that’s what you should be upset about. For you that app is just harmless bloat, what’s actually spooky is google play services as a system app. Do yourself a favor and install grapheneOS.

    • Gadg8eer@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      8 months ago

      This. Didn’t even use my Pixel 8 (then brand-new) until Grapheme OS was available for it (my Pixel 7 Pro got damaged beyond repair in an incident, not happy but though I expect privacy I don’t expect a phone to survive ~20G of force) because fuck Google.

        • Gadg8eer@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          8 months ago

          Not sure, but I think the WiFi on it was defective or something because I had ridiculous amounts of trouble setting up smarthome devices on that phone. After several DAYS of it, I lost my temper. The 20g forces are a wild guess but the phone was unsalvageable.

          Keep in mind I bought that Pixel 7 Pro on eBay.

    • iturnedintoanewt@lemm.ee
      1·
      8 months ago

      Yeah well, my GrapheneOS Pixel 7 with gservices (not a choice for some banking apps) has the damn device lock controller app installed. I can’t remove it. At least Graphene allows me to revoke its network/location permissions, which, by the way, it had granted by default.

    • coffeeClean@infosec.pub
      0·
      8 months ago

      Isn’t this more easily fixed?

      $ adb shell 'pm disable --user 13 com.google.android.gms'

      grapheneOS and the like might work for the OP and anyone with a mainstream phone, but there are a lot of unsupported cheap obscure phones which are stuck with stock Android.

    • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
      3·
      8 months ago

      I was able to start some of its private activities with ActivityLauncher as root. Most of them just crash immediately, but the help page is available. And yikes, they got them covered against a possible bypass, no developer tools or sideloading.

      Still disappointed this is shipped in LineageOS, but I suspect not for much longer with that publicity.

      • milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee
        33·
        8 months ago

        So, that looks like this is less insane than it sounded… This is for if you buy your phone on a payment plan? Not for creditors more generally to have a option to repossess/dispossess your phone?

        • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
          2·
          8 months ago

          That is both Google’s official version and what it looks like poking at it.

          I haven’t dug in the code, so I don’t know if this is theoretically possible for a shady carrier to enable after the fact. But it very much looks like a dormant feature nobody uses.

          I guess I could see that making sense in poorer countries where carriers might have issues of people signing up for phone plans and never paying. A carrier locked flip phone was pretty useless, but nowadays cutting your phone/data off is more of an inconvenience than a dealbreaker, you’ve still got WiFi and a nice phone.

          • Trainguyrom@reddthat.comEnglish
            1·
            8 months ago

            if you switch providers before paying it of

            Usually a financed devicd is financed through the carrier, and therefore a carrier branded device, and therefore locked to the carrier (yes they have the unlock option but compatibility tends to be far more limited than on the manufacturer unlocked version of the model)

        • SirQuackTheDuck@lemmy.world
          1·
          8 months ago

          Yeah, this is likely something that’s configured on an OS level to talk to some server when being sold.

          However, note that SIM cards can have a flag that might enable this app (given how much power sim cards have over phones)

          Note: no source, just assumptions

          Edit: second note: this app isn’t present on my EU OnePlus Nord.

  • Dr. Wesker@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    3·
    8 months ago

    I’m using a fresh install of GrapheneOS, and this is installed too. Not sure what that suggests, except that it’s possibly some core system level app.

    • Naz@sh.itjust.works
      5·
      8 months ago

      Hey man, quit repeating that. Each time we do it becomes closer to truth. Reality is what we make of it and we if tell these fucks no means no, it’ll stop.

      We’ll own things, and we’ll be unhappy about people trying to take away the things we own and paid for.

        • utopiah@lemmy.ml
          2·
          8 months ago

          Does it though? Isn’t there a risk of creating outrage but leading to increased learned helplessness rather than actual action?

          • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            0·
            8 months ago

            learned helplessness is going “we own nothing and we’ll be happy” or more accurately being entirely apathetic to the existence of no longer having ownership.

            in my experience, the vast majority of people (in tech circles) that use that phrase, are practicing what they preach.

            • utopiah@lemmy.ml
              1·
              8 months ago

              No, learned helplessness is “we own nothing, it sucks, yet we see no alternative and we gave up on looking”.

              If you were to imply that’s my situation happy to report it’s not, cf https://fabien.benetou.fr/Content/SelfHostingArtificialIntelligence or how I, just as an example, deleted my e.g Google and Meta accounts few years ago, and gave a workshops to RightsCon last year, unfortunately not recorded.

              • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
                1·
                8 months ago

                Well to be specific here. The example of learned helplessness that everyone loves citing, is when we put animals in a cage with a floor that will continually give them an electric shock that is impossible to avoid. And what is commonly seen is that the animals eventually just stop caring, become apathetic in a sense, and just wait to be shocked.

                So my application of apathy here applies, and is reflected in your interpretation as well. So realistically the best way to phrase it would be “We own nothing.”

                • utopiah@lemmy.ml
                  1·
                  7 months ago

                  Then those people are not citing the experiment properly because the whole point about it is NOT that it’s unavoidable. The experiment goes on an the threat is actually removed YET animals, either the same or new ones who get in touch with the others who were subject to the threat, keep on not trying. They LEARNED to become helpless despite the situation being objectively solvable.

        • Thegods14@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          2·
          8 months ago

          It is, but words are powerful, if not tempered with explanation, simple slogans quickly turn into phrases exploited by the enemies of the greater people.

        • androogee (they/she)@midwest.socialEnglish
          1·
          8 months ago

          It’s right wing propaganda.

          It’s the title of a short piece of speculative fiction. That’s it.

          People like Alex Jones have spun a web of lies turning it into the Master Plan of the Globalist (dogwhistle for Jewish) Overlords.

          Giving it any credence or voice is foolish. The end.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        8 months ago

        i mean, i literally run my own server, hold 8TB of media archived locally, host numerous services for my family and friends, as well as provide them with help. I think i’m doing my part here.

        I am quite literally, telling them no, by not using any of their bullshit products. I mean we’re on lemmy for fucks sake.

    • Zacryon@feddit.de
      11·
      8 months ago

      They just fuck with Kenyans. And that’s obviously okay, because they are not part of the western nations. /s

  • YⓄ乙 @aussie.zoneEnglish
    2·
    8 months ago

    Mate we live in a 5 eyes country so whatever shit you see in the USl by default you’ll see it here. Its sad but that’s how it is and regular 9-5s can’t do much about it