Finally degoogled as a result. Stupid to treat peoples data like this.
this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2025
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Privacy
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(Edit: There were two screenshots here, showing wildly different ratings for the app on the DuckDuckGo results page and the Playstore itself. The comment below kindly reminded me that DDG doesn't update in real time. Duh. I apologise for posting too quickly.)
Ddg obviously hasnt updated it's cache. Safetnet is new. Had a high rating at 4k reviews and the obviously social media misrepresents it and ppl flock to the store to drop 56k+ reviews on something they now misunderstand. So in just a few weeks the rating has changed dramatically and now ddg needs to update the cached review score.
Not that reviews matter for this app.
Out of date cache makes sense although I don't think I've seen any system app ever above 3 stars (that's why I even checked the Playstore page). Deleting the comment to not further propagate my false assumptions.
I'll repost my comment from the other post:
For people who have not read the article:
Forbes states that there is no indication that this app can or will "phone home".
Its stated use is for other apps to scan an image they have access to find out what kind of thing it is (known as "classification"). For example, to find out if the picture you've been sent is a dick-pick so the app can blur it.
My understanding is that, if this is implemented correctly (a big 'if') this can be completely safe.
Apps requesting classification could be limited to only classifying files that they already have access to. Remember that android has a concept of "scoped storage" nowadays that let you restrict folder access. If this is the case, well it's no less safe than not having SafetyCore at all. It just saves you space as companies like Signal, WhatsApp etc. no longer need to train and ship their own machine learning models inside their apps, as it becomes a common library / API any app can use.
It could, of course, if implemented incorrectly, allow apps to snoop without asking for file access. I don't know enough to say.
Besides, you think that Google isn't already scanning for things like CSAM? It's been confirmed to be done on platforms like Google Photos well before SafetyCore was introduced, though I've not seen anything about it being done on devices yet (correct me if I'm wrong).
Yes like most things this is misunderstood, bandwagoned and thus overblown.
Getting tired of social media. Even Lemmy.
The other one is the Firefox tou update... Not saying it won't eventually be a problem but as of today it's not sending your data to Mozilla. You have time to see how this pans out.
they're coming up to my front door with a battering ram
Let's see how this plays out.
As someone who has never used Firefox only librewolf/mull/ironfox this analogy is asinine. Switching browsers is trivial and not at all like dealing with the threat of violence. It's exactly bullshit like this that is tiring. No one is really thinking just making unintelligent quips and reactions or parroting the bullshit of others.