Warning to Samsung Users: Israeli App Collecting Data

The digital security organization “Smix” has issued a warning that Samsung devices from the A and M series contain an Israeli app that gathers sensitive data about the users’ application activities on their phones. This app cannot be deleted from the devices as it requires filling out a form that, in fact, does not exist.

According to a report published by the organization on Tuesday, the South Korean company may have installed software from an Israeli company on these devices for “commercial purposes.”

Automatically Installed Since 2022

The report clarifies that the Israeli app is “often pre-installed on your devices if you are in the Middle East and North Africa region.” Since 2022, Samsung has collaborated with the Israeli company Iron Source in this region. This company is behind the app found on all Samsung devices of the A and M series in the Middle East and North Africa, including Lebanon.

How the App Works

The operation of the app involves AppCloud installing Aura, a program that suggests downloading certain apps to users. It collects personal information and other device-related data, including media identifiers, IP addresses, fingerprints, and detailed device information. The data can easily identify users, especially if the location-sharing feature is activated in the apps through Aura. Alarmingly, it is impossible to stop the app’s activity or reject any permissions it requests.

How to Mitigate the Risk

Since deleting the app is not easy, “Smix” has shared a method to disable it, available in the video below on YouTube.

Difficulty in Uninstalling the App

The details associated with the app and the related software raise many questions that cast doubts on its legitimacy. The app can be imposed on users and downloaded without their consent, and more bizarrely, “it is not possible to stop the app’s activity or reject any permissions it requests.” Although the app claims to adhere to a privacy policy that allows users to stop data collection by disabling “App Cloud,” attempts to remove it from the device reveal that a non-existent form must be filled out, and uninstalling the app requires technical skills.

Even though users can access the device settings menu, go to the applications tab, and press the disable button for App Cloud, “it may not be possible to completely remove the app from the device, despite its deactivation.” This increases suspicions about the seriousness of the app’s deactivation, suggesting it may still operate even when apparently disabled.

Amid these difficulties, the nuances highlight the necessity of users not fearing every update to their phones, as not every update necessarily involves the automatic downloading of the intended app.

Contacting Samsung

The Israeli enemy seeks to exploit every opportunity for technological supremacy, yet it is surprising how Samsung allows downloading an app in a region known for its conflicts with Israel. The difficulty in canceling or deleting the app from phones necessitates “contacting Samsung for details, which ‘Smix’ intends to do in an attempt to stop this procedure.”

Other details in this file remain undiscovered, but the conclusions are not hard to draw. This move falls within the realm of suspicion that the enemy has taken proactive steps at the technological and cyber-security level in preparation for any potential war in Lebanon and the region. This has allowed it to gather information about Lebanese for a period before the ongoing war, just as it prepared a telecommunications devices deal that enabled targeting Hezbollah members when necessary. It is not surprising that the enemy opted to distribute the app via Samsung’s A and M series phones, considering their affordable prices for the middle and lower economic segments of the population, facilitating their widespread use and, consequently, broader data collection. Given Samsung’s association with an Israeli company in a region known for its sensitive dealings with Israel, the company, whether intentionally or not, has facilitated enemy espionage on us.