We've reached out to Alcatel for a statement, but either way, this is bad news for the company.
There are a lot of contenders in the budget Android space, and one of
them is Alcatel. I've used and recommended Alcatel phones over the
years, and while I've mostly been happy using gadgets from the company, a
new light's been shed on a security issue that'll likely prevent me
from doing so going forward.
Like a lot of phones from companies that aren't Google, Alcatel
devices come with their own default gallery app that isn't Google
Photos. Alcatel uploaded its gallery app to Google Play to allow for
faster updates, but an update that came in around mid-November replaced
this with something pretty nasty.
As Android Police
notes, the real app from Alcatel is simply titled as "Gallery" and was
uploaded by mie.alcatel.support. However, after that mid-November
update, it was replaced by an app called "Candy Gallery -Photo
Edit,Video Editor,Pic Collage" from developer Hi Art Studio. Unlike the
real gallery app from Alcatel that only asks for file access
permissions, this one from Hi Art Studio has access to Device ID, SMS
messages, Wi-Fi connection info, your location, phone call history, and
plenty more.
I reviewed the Alcatel Idol 5 back in October, and sure enough, the Candy Gallery app is installed on it.
We've reached out to Alcatel for more information about what in the
heck is going on, and if you own an Alcatel phone with this installed,
make sure you go to the app, hold down on it, drag it to app info, and
tap on the button labeled "Disable."
It's impossible to say at this time how or why this happened, but
either way, this is not a good look for Alcatel and has the potential
for serious repercussions going down the road.
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