Samsung S8 and the things it's doing.....on it's own.

[3930dave]

Finding something a bit troubling with my Samsung S8. The phone is putting together collages of various pics similar in nature, thinking I might want these. I don't, and if I do, I'll do it myself. But the real troubling part is the phone is analyzing content without my approval (knowingly) and what else is this thing doing...sending the content to who knows where?

Anybody else run into this? I've got an SD card in the phone with around 20,000 pictures....it's digging through all of that.

I've got Android locked down pretty tight on another brand (re. Google), now my pictures won't persist locally on the phone for long (days, 1 week max.). Might be fixable, but other things usually get in the way of me spending more time on this issue (a paying job, fixing personal transportation and houses.....).

Resistance is Futile....... Google is great ( ), so long as you completely go over to the dark-side (and forgo any hope of battery life, privacy.......). If you resist, then Google can create collateral issues like above.....

I don't take that many pics with my phone. I've ended up shifting over to WhatsApp in the last while, for a few reasons. A critical pic that I want to keep I will send to my wife from WhatsApp - those then seem to persist on my phone, and MAY be secure enough to stay out of Google's reach <- Though today, that seems quaintly naive to say.....

Less convenient (the drug that keeps most people on their phones.....), but for high volume pictures, I'd stay with a large name dedicated camera line. I wouldn't stake my life on them not playing the same Let's sell your Data all over the Planet game too, with their current models, but if you can fully disable wifi on recent ones, you may have better luck than trying to play Jason Bourne against the cell phone monsters..... I run an older Canon Powershot that I really like, w/o wifi onboard - I get that this is not what many people want to haul around, even on vacation.

One final note on WhatsApp - I haven't done it yet, but I believe it will run comfortably on a PC (tablet.....) too. If you could live with manually sending pictures (and your data plan won't kill you) from your phone, you could store them off-board that way too.

Total Surveillance - it's here to stay.

Rgds, D.

 

[prichard]

Is "Image analysis" turned off?

I'm on s8+ and have never seen this.

 

[3930dave]

Arguably, the only way to get full control of your phone is to use your largest implement to crush it into a fine powder. All other means are easily overcome by your "Agreement" to the terms and conditions your app developer had you agree to when you installed it (or started using it in the case of your phone), and your continued use of the product implies your continued agreement to terms that may change over time.

^ What he said.

In my last job, one guy I worked with was really into vintage cell phones. A surprising # of people are actively going back to high-end vintage flip phones. Not every carrier will play ball, and none of them today advertise that they will do it, but he has been successful activating the flip phones he uses.

If I get further "irritated" with my cell company's antics, I may go Retro myself.....

Rgds, D.

 

[Dftodd]

I just recently got an S8. But mine is issued through work, with there own apps, operating software, And actually connected to the company VN network.

Only think extra I can do with the phone is order a pizza, and use what's on the phone for apps already. Everything else is locked up where I can't get to it. Was kind of frustrating when I first got the phone. But then after thinking about it for a bit, I realized I really don't do much else with it anyway.

I did make the mistake of showing my wife the phone. She fell in love with the camera

 

[JohnBuffaloMN]

I just recently got an S8. But mine is issued through work, with there own apps, operating software, And actually connected to the company VN network.

Only think extra I can do with the phone is order a pizza, and use what's on the phone for apps already. Everything else is locked up where I can't get to it. Was kind of frustrating when I first got the phone. But then after thinking about it for a bit, I realized I really don't do much else with it anyway.

I did make the mistake of showing my wife the phone. She fell in love with the camera

In China, subjects (as opposed to citizens) have been taught to comply by their communist government. Samsung uses comply (no alternative) with their upgrades and software choices. Like other successful corporations in this field (Apple through attraction and Microsoft through forced updates to Windows 10...) the only way to remain in control of the OS is through force. It is why Apple is so successful - they force developers and end users into their sandbox. That way they can do predictive analysis on their system. You benefit by having a solid, mostly dependable machine. It's a trade off that most people never consider - but I do love my Samsung's camera!

 

[Dftodd]

In China, subjects (as opposed to citizens) have been taught to comply by their communist government. Samsung uses comply (no alternative) with their upgrades and software choices. Like other successful corporations in this field (Apple through attraction and Microsoft through forced updates to Windows 10...) the only way to remain in control of the OS is through force. It is why Apple is so successful - they force developers and end users into their sandbox. That way they can do predictive analysis on their system. You benefit by having a solid, mostly dependable machine. It's a trade off that most people never consider - but I do love my Samsung's camera!

I love it to. Was pretty impressed with the clarity of it. The bubble screen on the phone is taking a little getting used to. As a mechanic with the company I work for I can see the screen getting busted if I don't pay attention

I've had IPhones before. Not really impressed with them. I always had issues with the Apple store, remembering my password, and was an added extra irritation when trying to download something.

Work developed some apps for the galaxy to speed things up and streamline some things in the shop with paperwork. I can now pull my phone out of my pocket and take care of most paperwork with that instead. There are some things available that can't be used yet till they implement that feature in our location. When that happens, 98 percent of the time, I won't need to go to the office for anything. I can just pull out my phone and take care of it.

They wanted to implement those apps with IPhone as well. The issue was apple wouldn't play and give up control over the device (phone). So Everyone is issued a Galaxy instead.

Only issue I ran into, was when they first issued the phone to me. I happen to work for a specialty division for the company. They issued the phone set up for job title (shop foreman) not my actual job duties. So when the other guys got there phones, they had way more features and apps then I did as there boss

Took several calls to the IT department before I got someone with some brain cells that could actually explain what was going on with the phone, and understand that I actually handled the same job duties as my mechanic and delivery driver, and needed my phone reflashed and set up like there's.

 

[3930dave]

Is "Image analysis" turned off?

I'm on s8+ and have never seen this.

If that setting is for post-analysis (vs. image generation), then you might be on to something......

OTOH, with modern cell phones I don't consider anything to be truly OFF, even the power.

Rgds, D.

 

[jcummins]

My screen is busted...hate that but still usable.

On the camera....had a family get together, new baby, and a half dozen different cameras took part....then they started comparing the results. My S8 won and not by a little bit either.