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Smart Phones

Samsung Users Report ‘Unremovable’ Israeli Bloatware Appcloud On Devices

November 17, 2025 Middle East Eye. , , , , ,
South Korean tech giant Samsung has come under fire after users flagged that its devices contained what cybersecurity experts are calling bloatware across multiple regions globally. Bloatware is a pre-installed application that runs on a device’s operating system. Initially, the software, AppCloud, was reported to be pre-installed in Samsung Galaxy A and M series phones across West Asia and North Africa. But now, users from Europe and South Asia have reported that the bloatware also comes pre-installed on their devices, and is "unremovable". Uninstalling bloatware requires root access, the highest level of control in a computer system. In February, SMEX (formerly Social Media Exchange), a digital rights organisation based in Beirut, reported that AppCloud secretly harvests user data and lacks an accessible privacy policy, raising legal and ethical concerns due to its ties to the Israeli firm ironSource.

Our Smartphone-Dependent Culture Is Repeating The Mistakes Of Car-Centric Infrastructure

July 26, 2025 Owen Haacke, Next City. , , ,
Our inventions offer solutions and convenience; the systems we build bind us to them. Just look at our roads, wide strips of asphalt laid down for one invention: the car. Designed for mobility and convenience, the car quietly restructured our lives. Most of us spend our days behind the wheel, navigating a system built for cars. I see roads as canyons stretching between cities and suburbs, isolating homes, schools, offices and stores. In a car, we glide through them — we are part of the system. On foot, we are stranded, as if the world were not built for us.
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