Motorola Phones are Hijacking Links to Make Affiliate Cash
Droid Life • • technology
Key Points:
- Motorola phones with preinstalled Smart Feed software have been found hijacking links to shopping apps like Amazon, inserting affiliate links that generate revenue for unknown parties instead of the device owner.
- The hijacking occurs when a shopping app is opened, triggering a browser to briefly open and redirect to the app with the affiliate code inserted, as confirmed by network logs pointing to devicenative.com and kira-abboud.com.
- The affiliate codes do not align with the referenced fashion influencer linked to kira-abboud.com, and the influencer has no known connection to Motorola, leaving the destination of the affiliate revenue unclear.
- Users can disable Smart Feed by navigating to Settings > Apps > Smart Feed > Disable to prevent further hijacking of shopping app links.
- The issue appears linked to the Smart Feed bloatware potentially being exploited by a bad actor, and Motorola is expected to release an official statement regarding the situation.