Android

Android  (Operating system)
A widely used mobile operating system

Android is a widely used mobile operating system developed by Google. It is generally a reliable OS, but as sold to consumers it generally comes bundled with manufacturer malware to facilitate universal surveillance.

Distributions with Pre-installed Malware

Although open source, Android is often sold pre-installed on mobile phones with dozens of pieces of proprietary malware, usually not able to be uninstalled and sometimes even invisible to end users. The proprietary Android cellphone, in this state, has been described as "the most sophisticated surveillance machine to date for monitoring your routines." Even with a custom ROM, Google Play Services itself can act as spyware, tracking one's location , for example.

Rooting phones

Android is based on Linux, and is affected by a number of Linux bugs. In October 2016, 'Dirty Cow', a Linux privilege escalation bug was published online, which was "believed to work reliably on every version of the mobile operating system and a wide array of hardware."

Avoiding malware

To avoid software-based malware on Android phones, one should use one that gives the user full control (i.e. are rootable) and allow reinstall of an alternative OS such as plain AOSP Android or LineageOS. For additional security, one should avoid installing Google Apps, using alternatives to them, such as F-Droid and Aptoide as an alternative to the Google Play Store. Another security risk is proprietary drivers for the phone's hardware, which being closed source, cannot be independently verified to be safe. Dealing with these requires either a phone with open drivers available or one writing open drivers themselves. Since reverse engineering hardware protocols can be an extremely challenging ordeal, one should usually avoid phones with proprietary drivers if they want maximum security.

Google Playstore

A joint investigation by researchers from Security Without Borders and Vice concluded in March 2019 that the Google Play Store had around 20 malware apps that went undetected for 2 or so years.

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Huawei’s phone business would be decimated without Google’s Android	Article	20 May 2019	Vlad Savov	A resolution to the ongoing trade dispute between the US and China is now more urgent than ever. However, China is unlikely to react positively to the bullying tactics of the US. And that means Huawei’s phone business may be in limbo for a while yet.

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