Samsung AppCloud Sparks Privacy Fear: Accused of Being ‘Undeletable Spyware’
A debate over privacy has once again ignited around several budget Samsung smartphones. The controversy stems from the system service AppCloud, preinstalled on Galaxy A, M, and F devices in certain regions. This component is responsible for curating third-party app recommendations during initial setup or after system updates. For a long time, it was viewed merely as an intrusive recommendation engine, but a recent wave of discussion linked this service to far more serious concerns — primarily due to the origins of the company behind its development.
AppCloud was created by the Israeli firm ironSource, later absorbed into Unity. Against this backdrop, several social-media posts began attributing to the service the ability to silently install software without notifying the device owner. The spark was a post that amassed more than 7.4 million views, describing AppCloud as an “undeletable spyware module” on Samsung devices. That same post cited an open letter by the digital-rights organization SMEX, which claimed the service could harvest user data and argued that the presence of such software on devices in West Asian and North African countries might violate local restrictions on cooperation with companies from Israel.
The service has long caused frustration as part of a bundle of non-removable system components that are difficult to disable entirely. AppCloud holds elevated system permissions and cannot be removed through standard means. It can be uninstalled via ADB, but the vast majority of smartphone owners neither use this tool nor know it exists. This has amplified public distrust: a system-level module, controlled by an external company and impossible to disable in a conventional way, is perceived by many users as a potential risk.
Adding fuel to the suspicion is ironSource’s past in the desktop software world. Not long ago, the company offered Windows and macOS developers installer bundles capable of adding additional programs to the main application. This mechanism — familiar from the installCore platform — allowed software authors to profit from bundling third-party utilities. Security products classified such installers as “potentially unwanted” because they could operate without clearly informing users of the full set of software being installed. The fact that AppCloud resides on devices, and that the mechanism was created by a developer with such a history, has become yet another argument for critics.
At the same time, there is no confirmed evidence that AppCloud performs espionage functions. The current wave of concern rests on a combination of three factors: the service’s origins, its system-level privileges, and the inability to remove it using ordinary tools. This combination proved enough for the topic to spread rapidly across social networks, even though no direct proof of covert data access has been presented.
Given the scale of the debate, some smartphone owners hope the manufacturer will eventually allow AppCloud to be fully disabled, or at least prevent recommendation prompts without resorting to workarounds. For now, no such changes have been introduced, and no official statements have been issued. The company’s position is expected to become clearer in due course.
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