Yeah I couldn’t find it either. Thanks for your help!

Is this “feature” enabled mobile yet?

Something tells me this isn’t going to fly in Australia, unless they’re willing to be giving out refunds for bricked phones.

Lol whoops

I realise I have Google account, convenience at the cost of privacy. Just irks me that it’s not opt in because if it were, their system would be less useful, and we can’t give people informed consent can we…

This isn’t about my phone in particular.

The fact you cannot even imagine a situation where this kind of power would lead to vulnerable people having their lives be made even harder for missing a payment, shows how little you imagination and empathy you have.

This kind of power should lie with regulators and the justice system, not private companies.

Also why is this app ON MY PHONE WHICH I BOUGHT OUTRIGHT? ffs.

You too friend :)

Even if this would help (I’m OOP, and according to some commenters it’s still installed on their phones running other OSes), I’m still outraged at the concept and the fact it’s installed by default.

Plus, “just” installing a different OS is not a terribly mass-market friendly thing.

It should be regulated against by governments. The EU is slowly heading in the right direction. We’re letting these tech companies do whatever the fuck they want to.

Most people don’t have the time or knowledge necessary to make their digital lives entirely private.

This has “stop global warming by making personal choices” vibes to it.

I want privacy by default, and I’m not going to apologise for that.

I bought it practically on launch in Australia, directly from Google (I’m OOP), so I’d be surprised unless there was some last minute redirection of inventory from Kenya to Australia ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I’m OOP, I bought this phone outright. Google seems to be installing this on phones by default (the actual pattern based on people’s comments seems to be more recent phones, but not all have it).

It’s even shipping within de-googled phones, at some base ASOP level (or the hardware, I dunno, not that knowledgeable), as some GrapheneOS use reported having it on their phones too.

I’m pissed because: 1. It’s installed when it shouldn’t be, 2. Gives inappropriate power to creditors, which hurts the most vulnerable.

I’m OOP, I bought this Pixel 6 phone outright directly from Google. This system app has no business being on my phone.

And even IF it was purchased on credit, this is such an unfair power dynamic which hurts the most vulnerable in society.

Miss a phone payment, get locked out, haha have fun trying to access your bank account (many people have a phone as their primary computing device to access banking, and further, many banks might have SMS 2FA).

I say, there is no excuse for this. There were repo methods before software locks, and we’d ought to keep it that way.

It doesn’t appear to actually be used, at least in Australia, but having the functionality built in at all should be straight up illegal in a caring society.

Not sure, perhaps I should change this to “Google Pixel Android 14”

It’s not “available” in the Australian Playstore either, whether it’s installed so far seems to be how old your phone is (rough feeling based on comments). Not yet clear what the pattern is.

What model do you have, out of curiosity?

It’s literally phoning google services, and the package name has google in the name.

It’s a google thing.

Apparently this included on some phones running GrapheneOS according to some other commenters.

I agree with your sentiment, but think we need to urge our governments to regulate the ever-loving god our of these companies.

It’s getting more out of hand, and I don’t think we should just resign ourselves.

Flashing GrapheneOS is not an option for the vast majority of people due to barriers to entry, and potentially essential banking apps not playing nicely.

I’d rather not move on. Heck 'em.

Many thanks for this

No worries mate

Good to hear! And thanks for providing this data point. I may get around to doing a survey, and trying to rope in some people who know their way around android development to see what’s going on here.

Only somewhat. I think I should be able to figure the ADB terminal out as I’ve used it before (on training wheels following instructions).

Yeah overall I’m not too worried for me personally since I have it blocked behind a firewall.

It’s more than google has this installed for many more devices than it should be, and the purpose of it in general.

Makes my blood boil, with how far corporate overreach has come.

They should NOT be allowed to enable extrajudicial enforcement like this. The world worked just fine before this. People had property repossessed, just there’s a legal process to take. And a third party (the judicial system) decided whether to allow enforcement, not the creditor themselves.

Imagine you miss one phone payment (your card expires or something) and then you can’t access you phone, the primary device for most people to manage their digital lives. They’ll just be fucked, and it’ll be the most vulnerable in society who suffer.

It’s so wrong.

I think it’s much preferable that some bad apples just don’t pay and the creditor loses some money, than vulnerable people get their lives fucked over because they missed a single payment.