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Android Cellphones Software Technology

South Korea Rules Pre-Installed Phone Bloatware Must Be Deletable (zdnet.com) 112

Posted by BeauHD from the just-the-basics dept.
New industry guidelines in South Korea will allow smartphone users the option of deleting unnecessary pre-installed bloatware. "The move aims to rectify an abnormal practice that causes inconvenience to smartphone users and causes unfair competition among industry players," said the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, in a press release. ZDNet reports: The measure will also help give users more data storage and improve battery life, said the ministry. Under the new guidelines, telcos are required to make most of their pre-installed apps deletable except for four necessary items related to Wi-Fi connectivity, near-field communication (NFC), the customer service center and the app store.
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South Korea Rules Pre-Installed Phone Bloatware Must Be Deletable More

South Korea Rules Pre-Installed Phone Bloatware Must Be Deletable

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  • That means you can even delete the dialer (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    So operators are completely out of the loop if you use data only and use vpn and a VOIP dialer. This could work for Android but what about iOS?

    • Re:That means you can even delete the dialer (Score:5, Informative)

      by Gavagai80 ( 1275204 ) on Monday January 28, 2019 @08:54AM (#58033364) Homepage

      It explicitly does not mean that. It means "except for four necessary items related to Wi-Fi connectivity, near-field communication (NFC), the customer service center and the app store." Basically, boatware is anything that doesn't need to be on a restore image to make the phone immediately functional and allow convenient re-installation of desired apps.

      • Basically, boatware is anything that doesn't need to be on a restore image to make the phone immediately functional and allow convenient re-installation of desired apps.

        Except on Android the shipped bloatware is part of the read only portion of the image and thus specifically part of the core restore image.

  • Can we make rules for removable batteries too? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fustakrakich ( 1673220 ) on Monday January 28, 2019 @01:19AM (#58032484) Journal

    And headphone jacks, let's bring those back...

    When the market fails us, call in the cavalry

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      unlockable bootloaders..

  • 1MB (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 28, 2019 @01:22AM (#58032492)

    Microsoft's app sent 1MB of data from my phone to their servers. It came pre-installed, and I never used it. At what point exactly did I agree for Microsoft to slurp down 1MB worth of my private data from my phone?

    • Microsoft's app sent 1MB of data from my phone to their servers. It came pre-installed, and I never used it. At what point exactly did I agree for Microsoft to slurp down 1MB worth of my private data from my phone?

      Out of curiosity, what permissions does that app have? What might it have sent?

    • At what point exactly did I agree for Microsoft to slurp down 1MB worth of my private data from my phone?

      Woopse, someone didn't read the EULA that came with their device. Trust me, you agreed for the things shipped with your phone to slurp away.

      In any case why would you not want that app to slurp down data? Would you prefer that you had to manually open every single app before they were allowed to download anything from the internet? Can you imagine the resulting unpatched security hole nightmare? ... this is a Microsoft app afterall.

  • Google Play probably runs 24x7 in the background so that it's "instantly available" when you click on it, instead of having to wait a second or 2 while it loads. Of course this drains the battery and makes other apps slower because Google Play is "stealing cycles" in the background.

    • No need for special lobbying - store needs to remain to allow installation of new software. Otherwise people would delete everything and be left with no way to fix it themselves.

      • Re:Google probably lobbied for app store exemption (Score:4, Informative)

        by wierd_w ( 1375923 ) on Monday January 28, 2019 @02:08AM (#58032570)

        No. There's an out.

        the ADB interface allows the installation of apk files over a usb cable.

        • Re:Google probably lobbied for app store exemption (Score:4, Informative)

          by ISayWeOnlyToBePolite ( 721679 ) on Monday January 28, 2019 @02:28AM (#58032594)

          No need for special lobbying - store needs to remain to allow installation of new software. Otherwise people would delete everything and be left with no way to fix it themselves.

          No. There's an out.

          the ADB interface allows the installation of apk files over a usb cable.

          Or it could be a function in the customer service app.

        • Trying explaining that to your grandmother...

          • Re: Google probably lobbied for app store exemptio (Score:5, Informative)

            by wierd_w ( 1375923 ) on Monday January 28, 2019 @03:04AM (#58032654)

            Granny wont be the one doing the fixing. That's "what she has you for, dear."

            Since it is you that needs to know, why bother telling her?

            Just turn on developer mode, plug in the damn cable, do the one liner from the console, and stop being a bitch about it. :P

            In case you were wondering, it's

            abd install [somefile.apk]

            AND-- if you want to back up all of granny's stuff, modern android versions support a backup operation, so you can back up all of granny's apps and their associated private data too, and restore it just as easily. (so when she deletes everything and corks up her phone, you can just restore everything and say fuckit.)

            See this handy little article for details.

            https://9to5google.com/2017/11... [9to5google.com]

          • Granny wouldn't uninstall it in the first place. And any half-brain with half a clue who would can also figure out how to do a factory reset and not be so stupid the second time around.

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by johnsie ( 1158363 )
          Installation of APK files is a big security risk. Having an properly manged app market that checks packages are safe is the best way to make sure people don't install malware on their devices. Apple are doing the best job at that bet Google is catching up. Sideloading is so fcking dangerous.

          • Re:Google probably lobbied for app store exemption (Score:4, Interesting)

            by wierd_w ( 1375923 ) on Monday January 28, 2019 @06:33AM (#58033036)

            Agreed, I was point out that you can potentially get the playstore back again if somebody deletes it.

            (and a properly backed up system image will have a legit copy in the backup.)

            Sideloading is intended for testing apps, and for installing private apps that are not on the app store. However, it can be used to get out of the sticky problem that was posed-- what happens when end user deletes the store app.

          • "Installation of APK files is a big security risk. Having an properly manged app market that checks packages are safe is the best way to make sure people don't install malware on their devices. Apple are doing the best job at that bet Google is catching up."

            Apple and Google have both delivered malware through their app stores. App stores don't make you safe.

            "Sideloading is so fcking dangerous."

            Do you need the ghost of Steve jobs to hold your dick for you while you piss, too? Loading software from any source is an inherently risky activity, but taking the ability to sideload away from the user is turning their general purpose computing device into a toaster.

  • Only in Korea? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dmt0 ( 1295725 ) on Monday January 28, 2019 @01:53AM (#58032546)
    Does it mean that there will be a special firmware version just for Korea with deletable bloatware and the same old for everybody else?

    • I'm more interested in this magic bloatware free base image. The key part about Android is that the bloatware is part of the read only image of the phone and the apps then download on first acceptance of play store conditions. That's the reason why there is only a "disable" function but you can't fundamentally uninstall it. You can only get the bloatware back to its factory shipped condition.

      Obeying this ruling will require shipping a device with a different configuration than Android builds normally do.

  • Am I alone— (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Barny ( 103770 ) on Monday January 28, 2019 @01:58AM (#58032550) Journal

    In noticing that the article linked is 5 years old?

    I mean, I know /. usually lags a little, but this is crazy.

    • the article linked is 5 years old

      If you complain, a dupe will be posted.

    • Re:Am I alone— (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anubis IV ( 1279820 ) on Monday January 28, 2019 @02:35AM (#58032600)

      Reading the article is like looking at how the sausage is made: it leaves you with questions you don’t want answered.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sad_ ( 7868 )

      so are they making special phones for S Korea then? because everybody else in the world is still not able to remove pre-installed bloat from their phone.

    • I guess this never came to the US in the last 5 years. All my Motorola phones have had an NFL app that I have and would never use, but I can't delete it, only disable it. This is really frustrating because it's using up valuable storage space.

      • No, it's not. Pre-installed apps are stored on the system partition. Deleting it would make absolutely no difference to your usable space.

        • No, it's not. Pre-installed apps are stored on the system partition. Deleting it would make absolutely no difference to your usable space.

          The storage used by the system partition is carved out of the same pool of storage used by the data partition. If the apps weren't pre-installed, the system partition would be smaller and the data partition would be larger.

          • The system partition is already far larger than it needs to be. Manufactures reserve space for future upgrades. There's no reason to think that they would significantly shrink the system partition just because you forced them to make some of the bloat deletable ... especially since they would almost certainly maintain copies of it on the system partition in order to restore them during a "factory reset".

            If we really wanted to maximize the amount of space we would just eliminate partitioning entirely. May

            • The system partition is already far larger than it needs to be. Manufactures reserve space for future upgrades. There's no reason to think that they would significantly shrink the system partition just because you forced them to make some of the bloat deletable

              OEMs leave extra space for upgrades, but they definitely make them smaller when fewer apps are preinstalled. I've spoken to several about exactly this topic.

              • That's possible; I have no inside info on how exactly they make those determinations so I'm fine with deferring to your anecdote. Either way it's irrelevant. Modern phones come with 32 GB of storage minimum, and most have 64+. Minimizing the system partition would have been helpful when the standard was 8-16, but these days it's entirely pointless. And any such changes aren't going to help you with your old phone anyway.

  • Considering that this is about mobile phones, why isn't the phone dialer on the list of exemptions?

  • I don't know about Korean phone companies, but the American ones will make sure they have a loophole. For example, allow stuff to be deleted, but reinstall it with the next "patch" which happens at least weekly. Yes, I know patches aren't that often, but they will be.

  • now i can finally delete facebook, microsoft office, and other crap i never use, at the moment i can disable these apps but i can not delete them, now i expect a system update to change that so i can finally uninstall all the unused third party crapware

    • Re:good, its about time (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 28, 2019 @05:43AM (#58032920)

      You need to buy a phone from Korea sold after the law have become active first.

      Isn't it interesting how the market haven't provided you with what you want and you have to rely on the legislation in another country for companies to get it.

      It is almost as if market capitalism doesn't work as advertised unless there are more than a hundred vendors to choose from.

      • You can buy mobiles manufactured by state-owned companies.
      • thats what i am going to do when it comes time to buy a new phone, i will go to a brick & mortar and ask to see the phone and i will open the settings - apps and see if there are third party apps and if they can be uninstalled, i dont like the lock in of third party apps, Samsung phones are great hardware but the software side of things has some annoyances

      • Isn't it interesting how the market haven't provided you with what you want and you have to rely on the legislation in another country for companies to get it.

        It is almost as if market capitalism doesn't work as advertised unless there are more than a hundred vendors to choose from.

        Market capitalism has never meant that every whim of every individual will be satisfied. You're thinking of "magic".

      • It is almost as if market capitalism doesn't work as advertised unless there are more than a hundred vendors to choose from.

        It's ironic that you would level that charge against an industry which was nearly crippled by overzealous regulation. The EU mandated all phones must adhere to the GSM standard. A bunch of regulators sat down, and stamped out what they thought would be the ideal way to use the technology, and mandated that everyone use the system they came up with. Most countries outside the EU fol

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mvdwege ( 243851 )

          That's a neat bit of revisionism there. GSM ruled the actual world (except the US) for voice communication; it was so succesful that by the time it needed an update for high-bandwidth data, the owners of the CDMA IP begged to be taken into the UMTS standard.

  • Write the crapware apps to a writable partition of the phone. If people choose to delete the apps, they go away forever. If they choose to keep them, then the app will update like any other, e.g. the Facebook placeholder app gets replaced by the latest from the store. The only slightly tricky part is for a factory reset where the default apps have to be reinstated to the write partition from some tarball which does reside in the read partition for that purpose and no other.

    This is moderately more effort t

  • Now if only this applies to phones in North America as well...

  • I can finally delete the App-store and Safari!
  • Considering that this is from five years ago, how did it work out? Was it effective?

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