The growing insistence of Mobile Services Manager (DT Ignite) on Android devices

The growing insistence of Mobile Services Manager (DT Ignite) on Android devices

[Kaio Duarte Costa]

Since a few weeks ago, I've been dealing with the annoyance of the
Mobile Services Manager (the famous DT Ignite, with a "nicer" name),
which practically forces android device users to install proprietary
applications, with abusive advertisements, when it does not install them
without the user's permission (since it has abusive permissions to
install and uninstall applications, as a system application).

What was once a periodic annoyance has now become almost daily, as
Digital Turbine (in partnership with Samsung) is increasing the
insistence on 'marketing' the device's notifications tab with an
annoying advertisement called "find the next ideal app for you".
Furthermore, it is impossible to remove the advertisement from the
notification tab, only by deactivating the app (which evidently does not
seem to be effective).

Those who dare to click, even if accidentally, will encounter a white
full screen, which forces the user to click next, forcibly encouraging
them to install the apps from the screen, or deselect a giant list of
apps not to be installed. Furthermore, these are installed as "silent
notifications", so the user is only aware of their existence when he
sees them on the device.

I believe, that thousands of users are annoyed by this forced
advertising, which violates the users' freedom and reinforces the need
for our fight. Therefore, I would like to assess with you what we can do
about it, from complaints to campaigns, I believe that any manifestation
of society about this abuse to the user, is of great value!

-- 
Kaio Duarte Costa (Kaiod)

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Re: The growing insistence of Mobile Services Manager (DT Ignite) on Android devices

[Paul Sutton via libreplanet-discuss]

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On 01/05/2022 22:08, Kaio Duarte Costa wrote:
> Since a few weeks ago, I've been dealing with the annoyance of the
> Mobile Services Manager (the famous DT Ignite, with a "nicer" name),
> which practically forces android device users to install proprietary
> applications, with abusive advertisements, when it does not install them
> without the user's permission (since it has abusive permissions to
> install and uninstall applications, as a system application).
> 
> What was once a periodic annoyance has now become almost daily, as
> Digital Turbine (in partnership with Samsung) is increasing the
> insistence on 'marketing' the device's notifications tab with an
> annoying advertisement called "find the next ideal app for you".
> Furthermore, it is impossible to remove the advertisement from the
> notification tab, only by deactivating the app (which evidently does not
> seem to be effective).
> 
> Those who dare to click, even if accidentally, will encounter a white
> full screen, which forces the user to click next, forcibly encouraging
> them to install the apps from the screen, or deselect a giant list of
> apps not to be installed. Furthermore, these are installed as "silent
> notifications", so the user is only aware of their existence when he
> sees them on the device.
> 
> I believe, that thousands of users are annoyed by this forced
> advertising, which violates the users' freedom and reinforces the need
> for our fight. Therefore, I would like to assess with you what we can do
> about it, from complaints to campaigns, I believe that any manifestation
> of society about this abuse to the user, is of great value!
> 

Whole campaigns are good, perhaps we need to also:

* Find out what people use / need their phones for
* Assess if alternative, Android based operating systems for mobiles can 
help
* Assess if alternative phones are an option for people
* Help people make the transition

There are some good resources to promote f-droid for example.
I made a post on alternative mobile systems back in January,  and got 
some of the info from the fsf website. I have sorted out the different 
replacements in to Android derived and other

https://personaljournal.ca/paulsutton/mobile-devices

We need to raise awareness, but at the same time help people who are 
shackled in to the current eco system,  I think RMS said he had issues 
trying to book covid test or vaccination due to the need of non free apps.

Perhaps rather than telling people what the issue is,  we can promote 
the alternatives and why we feel they are better for privacy, user 
freedoms etc.  Make sure the alternatives work for people too.


I still have no idea, given the number of replacement systems, if there 
is a full set of applications ported, most people don't want the nonsense of

App X is on replacement system x
App y is on replacement system y
app z is on replacement system z

So a user needing to run all 3 of these applications can't as no one 
replacement (which we claim is better) will run what they want, 
replacemetn OS may be better for freedom but if that gets in the way of 
their work,  we won't get people to move.

E,g a lot of transit systems have apps for tickets, so unless that app 
is available they won't move system.



Just a thought

Paul

-- 
Paul Sutton, Cert Cont Sci (Open)
https://personaljournal.ca/paulsutton/
OpenPGP : 4350 91C4 C8FB 681B 23A6 7944 8EA9 1B51 E27E 3D99

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Re: The growing insistence of Mobile Services Manager (DT Ignite) on Android devices

[Adonay Felipe Nogueira via libreplanet-discuss]

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Em 02/05/2022 12:32, Paul Sutton via libreplanet-discuss escreveu:
> On 01/05/2022 22:08, Kaio Duarte Costa wrote:
>> Since a few weeks ago, I've been dealing with the annoyance of the
>> Mobile Services Manager (the famous DT Ignite, with a "nicer" name),
>> which practically forces android device users to install proprietary
>> applications, with abusive advertisements, when it does not install them
>> without the user's permission (since it has abusive permissions to
>> install and uninstall applications, as a system application).
>>
>> What was once a periodic annoyance has now become almost daily, as
>> Digital Turbine (in partnership with Samsung) is increasing the
>> insistence on 'marketing' the device's notifications tab with an
>> annoying advertisement called "find the next ideal app for you".
>> Furthermore, it is impossible to remove the advertisement from the
>> notification tab, only by deactivating the app (which evidently does not
>> seem to be effective).
>>
>> Those who dare to click, even if accidentally, will encounter a white
>> full screen, which forces the user to click next, forcibly encouraging
>> them to install the apps from the screen, or deselect a giant list of
>> apps not to be installed. Furthermore, these are installed as "silent
>> notifications", so the user is only aware of their existence when he
>> sees them on the device.
>>
>> I believe, that thousands of users are annoyed by this forced
>> advertising, which violates the users' freedom and reinforces the need
>> for our fight. Therefore, I would like to assess with you what we can do
>> about it, from complaints to campaigns, I believe that any manifestation
>> of society about this abuse to the user, is of great value!
>>
> 
> Whole campaigns are good, perhaps we need to also:
> 
> * Find out what people use / need their phones for
> * Assess if alternative, Android based operating systems for mobiles can
> help
> * Assess if alternative phones are an option for people
> * Help people make the transition
> 
> There are some good resources to promote f-droid for example.
> I made a post on alternative mobile systems back in January,  and got
> some of the info from the fsf website. I have sorted out the different
> replacements in to Android derived and other
> 
> https://personaljournal.ca/paulsutton/mobile-devices
> 
> We need to raise awareness, but at the same time help people who are
> shackled in to the current eco system,  I think RMS said he had issues
> trying to book covid test or vaccination due to the need of non free apps.
> 
> Perhaps rather than telling people what the issue is,  we can promote
> the alternatives and why we feel they are better for privacy, user
> freedoms etc.  Make sure the alternatives work for people too.
> 
> 
> I still have no idea, given the number of replacement systems, if there
> is a full set of applications ported, most people don't want the
> nonsense of
> 
> App X is on replacement system x
> App y is on replacement system y
> app z is on replacement system z
> 
> So a user needing to run all 3 of these applications can't as no one
> replacement (which we claim is better) will run what they want,
> replacemetn OS may be better for freedom but if that gets in the way of
> their work,  we won't get people to move.
> 
> E,g a lot of transit systems have apps for tickets, so unless that app
> is available they won't move system.
> 
> 
> 
> Just a thought
> 
> Paul
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> libreplanet-discuss mailing list
> libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org
> https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
> 

Note: replying again, this time to the mailing list. No changes made to
the message.

I do agree that outlining a plan is good and, speaking of software, I
hope that F-Droid fixes their FSDG-uncompliance issues, the Replicant
project has more details. Meanwhile, I think that it is good to follow
the Freedom Ladder ([1]), with F-Droid as middle step and, as final
goal, have Replicant (no F-Droid) with ADB installing apps known to be
free/libre and also FSDG-compliant (since there are rare cases in which
these don't mean the same thing).

# References

[1]: https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Freedom_Ladder

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Re: The growing insistence of Mobile Services Manager (DT Ignite) on Android devices

[Adonay Felipe Nogueira via libreplanet-discuss]

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Em 1 de maio de 2022 18:08:39 BRT, Kaio Duarte Costa <kaiod@riseup.net> escreveu:
>Since a few weeks ago, I've been dealing with the annoyance of the
>Mobile Services Manager (the famous DT Ignite, with a "nicer" name),
>which practically forces android device users to install proprietary
>applications, with abusive advertisements, when it does not install them
>without the user's permission (since it has abusive permissions to
>install and uninstall applications, as a system application).
>
>What was once a periodic annoyance has now become almost daily, as
>Digital Turbine (in partnership with Samsung) is increasing the
>insistence on 'marketing' the device's notifications tab with an
>annoying advertisement called "find the next ideal app for you".
>Furthermore, it is impossible to remove the advertisement from the
>notification tab, only by deactivating the app (which evidently does not
>seem to be effective).
>
>Those who dare to click, even if accidentally, will encounter a white
>full screen, which forces the user to click next, forcibly encouraging
>them to install the apps from the screen, or deselect a giant list of
>apps not to be installed. Furthermore, these are installed as "silent
>notifications", so the user is only aware of their existence when he
>sees them on the device.
>
>I believe, that thousands of users are annoyed by this forced
>advertising, which violates the users' freedom and reinforces the need
>for our fight. Therefore, I would like to assess with you what we can do
>about it, from complaints to campaigns, I believe that any manifestation
>of society about this abuse to the user, is of great value!
>
>-- 
>Kaio Duarte Costa (Kaiod)
>
>_______________________________________________
>libreplanet-discuss mailing list
>libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org
>https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss

Perhaps installing, and contributing, to Replicant and pretending to have an "old phone for personal preference", can serve as workaround. I'm not a lawyer, but I think no one can obligate you to use something that your own resources or environment don't support.
-- 
* https://libreplanet.org/wiki/User:Adfeno
* Ativista não advogado, nem técnico de informática
* Compre dos vendedores locais
* Use e contribua ao software livre (diferente do gratuito)
* Compartilhando documentos eletrônicos? Use OpenDocument (ABNT NBR ISO/IEC 26300:2008 e atualizações). Outros tipos: vide endereço anterior
* Use aplicativos de mensagem federados ou distribuídos: use XMPP (pai do WhatsApp) e GNU Jami
* E-mails assinados com OpenPGP (anexo "signature.asc")

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