More than 50 companies, including Privacy International, Digital Rights Foundation, DuckDuckGo, and Electronic Frontier Foundation, have sent an open letter to Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai. The authors of the letter note that the pre-installed software on Android poses a privacy threat to consumers.
All Android OEMs pre-install their devices with applications that cannot be removed and that may bypass the Android permissions model. This allows them to access the microphone, camera, and location without user intervention. As a result, many smartphone manufacturers collect user data without their explicit consent and use it for their own purposes.
The authors of the letter demand that Google should not certify a device if it finds that an OEM is attempting to exploit user privacy and their data.
Source: linux.org.ru
