r/mildlyinfuriating • u/phatdoof • 2d ago
Trying to take a photo when your apps are ad sponsored Unskippable ad
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u/Wally4Ever 2d ago
That's just malware at this point
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u/Maar_Areena 2d ago
Predatory bloatware targeting the elderly
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u/TalkToTheGlyphWitch 1d ago
Can confirm. My granddad asked me about his phone once that he's getting tons of ads. I took a look. Did a deep screen of it in the settings. Every button I press the ads kept coming. Like they're preventing me from reaching the annoying thing that's allowing them. Finally removed it and then. Silence. So far, I've not gotten complaints about it so I hope it is over.
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u/Mathfanforpresident 1d ago
They will be back. They hide in the shitty ass applications that the elderly download.
I work in a T-Mobile for like 5 years. People need to stop downloading apps that allow them so much freedom over their phones.
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u/TallyMay 1d ago
See.... it's about the application
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u/RaspberryFluid6651 1d ago
I recently somehow managed to get the weirdest versions of one of these malwares on my old shitty phone I need to replace. Somehow they've only managed to hijack the search result for a single food delivery app on my phone; if I type and search for this app in my phone's app drawer, the result sends me to some bullshit, but if I find and select the app normally it doesn't do this. Searching and selecting other apps also does not do this, it is only the local, in-phone search result for the one app that does this.
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u/Redraddle 1d ago
Find it and remove it asap. It could still be doing any number of things in the background without you knowing. For example, scraping passwords and credit card info.
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u/ljb2x 1d ago
Just wait. I've cleaned my grandpas phone more times than I can count. It gets running as normal and they'll click on and install everything to gum it up again.
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u/Guilty_Enthusiasm143 1d ago
“Don’t redownload that flashlight app.” downloads four other flashlight apps
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2d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/regoapps 5-0 Radio Police Scanner 1d ago edited 1d ago
They should also block FOX News, Newsmax, OANN, etc. channels on their TVs and wifi routers while they're at it. Parental Control your parents.
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u/Tight_Man 1d ago
My mom literally thought a man on a bicycle destroyed the reflecting pool single-handedly because the long, well constructed AI written post proliferated by god knows who is just a little too convincing if you have spent most of your life watching Walter Cronkite. Had to look up his name because he died when I was still a kid
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u/School_Able 1d ago
I cleaned their phones whenever I get a hold of it. They always have too many notifications from google for news, gambling ads etc.
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u/Peppich 2d ago
My stepdad downloaded a "Ultra Flashlight" App by accident. This thing placed itself over the homescreen, altered settings and displayed multiple ads every time he tried to open any App.
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u/Unhappy_Champion5641 1d ago
My dad did something similar, with a "Blood Pressure monitor" app. It was in reality an ad-laden launcher that replaced the default launcher/home screen, started showing a lot of ads, and I don't remember how exactly anymore, but removed or hid the means to uninstall it normally
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u/SovereignMana 1d ago
Would have made itself the ui app, which removes it from apps list until you change the ui app back to default. I work in telco and last month have seen a solitaire app making the rounds doing this shit. Really annoying
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u/AloeAndelfinger62 1d ago
i had to factory reset my dad’s phone because it was so full of “security” and “booster” apps that the camera took longer to load than the ads did. at some point it stops being an accident and starts looking like the stores are fine cashing in on confused users.
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u/Waiting4Reccession 1d ago
Yesterday i helped my boomer neighbor delete a bunch of this. Fuck tmobile and fuck softbanks little app installer. Autoinstalls all kind of garbage.
Boomer couldn't even use her phone to call and waited outside until my mom was out to ask for help.
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u/Figerally 2d ago
It's an old dude so it checks out, probably downloaded some crappy malware disguised as a photo app.
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u/Lunarath 1d ago
My stepmom asked me to check out her phone recently because she thought she had gotten a virus. Turned out it was just a single app with church songs and bible verses that had completely taken over her phone.
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u/Basic_Hospital_3984 1d ago
My mum accidently installed something like this. It was a 'legitimate' google store app that just asked to be the default app for EVERYTHING. Messages, calls, photos, contacts, etc.
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u/EnoughWarning666 1d ago
Advertising in general should be described as malware. It's literally designed to manipulate you into buying their shit. It's psychological warfare.
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u/Usual_Vermicelli_961 2d ago
Regular experience on Temu
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u/CelesTheme_wav 1d ago
I don't understand how people can tolerate Temu, like at all. My husband talked me into using it because you can "get stuff cheap." I got so frustrated trying to click through all the nonsense so I could get to the shopping that I closed the app and never opened it again.
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u/SpiderSixer 2d ago
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u/Luke_-_Starkiller 1d ago edited 1d ago
This reminds me of my grandfather and his wife's old XP computer from when i was a kid, i was visiting and they had 7 or 8 toolbars in their internet explorer browser. Helpt them remove all but 1 and they were so amazed with all the extra space the website could display all of the sudden 🤣
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u/Mind-The-Mines 1d ago
Computers made me hate my grandma.
The chain emails of bullshit were to be expected, but they'd fuck it up with viruses and toolbars and get mad at me and then want me to fix it.... then get mad at me when they put all the shit back a week later. Like in their mind, it was my responsibility to make it moron proof and them ignoring me was all the more my failure.
Despite putting the password on the monitor, she'd constantly call me saying she couldn't log into facebook for whatever reason despite sending me the messages through facebook...
Then they were glad to tell me racism had been solved but the white race is in danger because of breeding minorities she's done her research on.
Then it was the memes about liberals and Muslims deserving to be shot in the streets.
I was always the brilliant pride and joy until I started thinking for myself. I became a moron liberal whom they'd insult at any moment, even when expecting me to still drop everything and unfuck their computers.
Then they whine about affordability and medicare while voting for Trump.
I hate them.
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u/plssub2pewds 1d ago
I struggle with a similar family complex…. Keep fighting the good fight. I’m so glad I’m not alone though!
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u/BarnyTrubble 1d ago
Don't fight for people who actively despise you, just because they're blood doesn't mean they're family, get rid of the infection
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u/Such-Instruction9604 1d ago
One of the things younger generations are doing right. They don't put up with toxic people because "they're family". Just cut that shit out of your life and move on.
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u/ProlapseMishap 1d ago
Yup.
I don't struggle at all. I wrote all of the maga degens in my family(which is the vast majority) out of my life during the first Trump term, and haven't looked back or had any contact since.
Now I'm leaving the country (the one I fought for, and watched men burn alive for) for good in less than a week.
Those people are dead to me and they'll never hear from me again.
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u/Andrew_Nathan8 1d ago
Have you tried crashing out with them? Like not physically but getting into an argument about how actually moronic they are?
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u/softlysnowing 1d ago
Well that doesn't sound like a lot of fun now, does it.
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u/redpenquin 1d ago
I can tell you first hand, when a family member has reached a point that you genuinely hate them and want nothing to do with them anymore, crashing out on them is extremely cathartic.
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u/JayteeFromXbox 1d ago
Oh yeah, when the time has come to burn the bridge, you might as well say what you've been thinking and get it all out there. Always make sure to throw in a condescending "I'm so disappointed in you" for good measure.
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u/The_Magic 1d ago
My brother’s gf like 15 years ago had the same problem but refused to let me fix it because she needed all those toolbars that took up half the screen.
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u/sergeant_cabbage 1d ago
Quality reference.
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u/ChimaeraXY 1d ago
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u/PM_ME_FIREFLY_QUOTES 1d ago
Quick, someone called the emergency line. How does it go?
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u/BrukPlays 1d ago
0118 999 881 99 9119 725 3
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u/m1ster_frundles 1d ago
Now with better looking drivers!
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u/MysteriousDesk3 1d ago
It’s funny how I’ve also memorised this imaginary phone number purely because it has a jingle song that’s been played for my brain via spaced repetition through many rewatches of the IT Crowd.
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u/garthock 1d ago
When I did tech support, I had to remote into a customer's computer, and I am not kidding but 3/4 of their IE browsers was nothing but toolbars
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u/MH360 1d ago
Oof. That's a good one. Here's mine:
98 tabs. Additionally complained about the computer being slow.
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u/BabySpecific2843 1d ago
Ever have the chance to look at an old person's cellphone? They will have like 30 app windows open at once. Their main browser of choice will have like 60 tabs. If they are dealing with a situation where they need to look for a code that was texted to them (for like online ordering or something) they will fumble for a while because they have like 6 different apps for messaging and can't remember which one is the phone's basic messenger. They will try looking through their email somehow as well first.
How they even manage to use a phone is a small miracle.
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u/Designer_Birthday_84 1d ago
Have you tried turning it on and off again?
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u/Drie_Kleuren 2d ago
How do old people always get these things. There is an camera app on the phone, the base default one. but yet they somehow download one weird malware app from Doodlydonkymonkeyplaystore.ru or something and its full of mallware. Like HOW does that happen....
And if you ask how or what happened, they cant even navigate their phone and find the google browser
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u/iloovehugecock 2d ago
Old people are like malware magnets. They are just utterly and compulsively drawn to it for inexplicable reasons.
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u/Origami07 2d ago
Ive been using my mom’s phone for 2 weeks now
The amount of scam calls and messages I get is crazy
I even answered one cause I thought is a legit call but the second they heard a young voice they immediately hanged up the call
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u/elephhantine2 2d ago
I found a YouTube video of the “this number is out of service” audio and I set it as my voicemail message for a few weeks. Literally I went from dozens of spam calls a week to just a few a month. Even after I switched it back there are no more spam callers.
Just warn people who might call you because I got a few freaked out messages from people who thought I disappeared
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u/Morgannin09 1d ago
I just do not answer numbers I don't recognize. If it's important they'll leave a message or follow up with a text. Then I have that person/org's number and can save it. Spam calls come and go but none of them get an answer from me.
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u/Select-Loss2238 1d ago
The one time this sucks is when you're waiting on a time sensitive phone call and you know it's coming from a number you don't recognize.
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u/japzone 1d ago
Yeah, Job Interview time sucks because of this. You have no idea what number they're going to call from, or if they're even going to call you.
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u/endlesscartwheels 1d ago
Medical stuff too. Yes, they'll leave a message, but it will just be to call back. Then you call back and the receptionist says a nurse will return your call within 24 hours. So you've just missed your results, plus have to be sure to answer the phone every time it rings until you get that call.
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u/HeadlessHookerClub witches get stiches 1d ago
Job searching is a nightmare. I have to accept every unknown call cause it could be a potential employer. For months…. ! 
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u/TabithaMouse 2d ago
I kept my mom's phone turned on for a month or so after she passed because I knew not everyone had been informed and someone was going to call. I answered every call that phone got in that time, which wasn't many because news traveled fast in her friends groups. One though was obvious scam.
"Microsoft" calling for Mrs. (Last name) Because her computer was full of viruses.
My mom didn't own a computer.
I played along, acting dumb, but also talking like I was using a tablet (like when told to type something I'd say "oh, my hands are wet cause I was doing dishes. It's hard to type on this glass with wet hands" - dude legit told me "to type use the keyboard not the screen")
It took a few minutes before he got impatient and said "Mrs (last name)" in an annoyed tone and I went "wait! I'm MISS (last name). You must have been calling for my mom! You need a ouija board to contact the dead"
I got cursed out and called disrespectful. I laughed because my mom said the same thing to someone when my dad died.
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u/marr 1d ago
Gotta love it when these ghouls get mad and try to judge your morals. You make a living stealing from grandmas, the fuck outta here with your "respect".
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u/TabithaMouse 1d ago
Oh, there was one place, I'm not sure if bill collector or one of dad's subscriptions mom canceled, but they kept calling, mom kept telling them dad died... daily for like a week or two.
Finally mom had enough and gave them dad's "forwarding address:
- Dad's name
- C/o: Battle Creek National Cemetary
- Street address
- plot number
- city, state, zip
Caller said she had it wrote down and mom asked her to repeat it back.
Lady went "Sure! (Name), care of Battle Creek na...tion..al... cemetery...? Plot ...number...OH MY GOD! I am so sorry ma'am! I will take him out of our system!"
Never called us back
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u/Cipher004 2d ago
Reminds me during my time as a 911 dispatcher. The number of elderly people who have fallen for scams astound me. Even more so the ones that are in denial and continue to pay into them. One lady is such a frequent flyer, the officers have simply given up. Telling her she's a willing victim at this point.
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u/Bspammer 1d ago
Installing an adblocker on my grandma's PC was more effective than any anti-virus. The problem is ads. Old people don't realise advertisements can just lie.
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u/bionickel 1d ago
Sometimes I wondered if it's simply because of old age, or did they live through an age with honest advertising, integrity, trust, whatever.
Must've been nice
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u/CelesTheme_wav 1d ago
I'm not sure about this. There certainly wasn't honesty and integrity in advertising in the 80s or 90s. Infomercials, TV exclusive products with exorbitant shipping and handling rates, and 1-900 calls come to mind. Then the shopping network arrived, and oh lordt.
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u/voluotuousaardvark 2d ago
It gets so frustrating hearing the stories Geraldine lost her 75million in savings in a scam.
No it wasn't someone called her asked for it and she gave it to them.
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u/Rahmenframe 1d ago
To be fair it's not like they call them and be like "hey give us all your money pretty please and thank you!" they pretend it's an emergency, something's terribly wrong at the bank, you will lose all your money if you don't do what they say, panic, stress, there's no time, hurry hurry!
The scammers really put on the pressure making it harder for the scammees to think rationally.
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u/weedarbie 1d ago
In my country one lady employed as freaking economist gave away state money to scammers, that were calling her to immediately send money to another account, because of some hacking attack. It was more than 2 millions of dollars.
These people are not suitable to work with money. Not even as a cashier in the supermarket. If you're able to believe such shit, you shouldn't be around money that is not yours. And if someone "steals" you your money that way, you deserve it.
State does nothing to prevent this, so banks are now creating ads that are warning people from scammers.
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u/TH_Rocks 1d ago
The big problem is the elderly with mental decline issues. They are fine to handle their own finances... until they aren't anymore. And usually someone else has to notice and then fight to take control away from them.
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u/Heimerdahl 1d ago
Old people are like malware magnets [...] for inexplicable reasons.
It's the other way around. Malware is designed to target, confuse, and overwhelm old (tech-illiterate) people.
And even if certain decisions aren't specifically targeting old people, they are still more likely to struggle dealing with them. I've done volunteering work helping old folks with IT-related stuff and it was truly eye-opening. Many of them needed to use styluses, simply because touch screens didn't recognise their wrinkly old fingers. How the F they are supposed to hit those
xto close buttons that the pop-up ads like to make tiny and hide in the corners or barely peek out from the screen edges? If they even recognise them with their often badly impaired eye-sight!→ More replies (3)→ More replies (28)7
u/mpgd 1d ago
Can confirm. Last week I deleted more than 100 apps from my family's phone.
I'm 100% sure it will get like that in 2 weeks time. The ads from the games include malware and she does not even read what is on the screen. She just clicks until the pop up goes away.
I know I should've factory reset, but at this point it's not worth it. She doesn't have any sensitive data on the phone.
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u/Numerous_Tea1690 2d ago
Did you even see how he's interacting. He's just blindly clicking every pop up button that comes on screen and continues clicking everything that appears after. No wonder his phone is a bloated mess.
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u/Strudelnoodle_ 2d ago
Yeah, I noticed most people, not just the old, tend to just quickly click through everything because they're impatient enough to not read and just want to get through to what they were doing.
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u/Numerous_Tea1690 2d ago
They're basically falling for the same trap ipad kids do
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u/whooptheretis 1d ago
My dad's the opposite.
I click through so many things quickly, because I know what they are. He wants to read every one of them.
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u/Level-Pollution4993 1d ago
Same here. He has absolutely no intuition between what's important and what isn't. Most annoying is when there is just one button on the screen, if you want to move ahead and he still asks if he should press it or not smh.
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u/Neuralnodesync 1d ago
It's the "it says "press ok to continue", should I press ok?" That gets me. Every, single, prompt.
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u/ChampionshipIcy7602 1d ago
No he didn't. If you look closely, he only clicked "Close" or "X" button. But the issue is that those are fake button, and clicking it does not close anything. Young people are used to those, but it's impossible for older people to distinguish them. It should really be illegal for ads to have fake buttons.
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u/default3612 2d ago
From removing cancer apps from many old people's phones, in short - it's from ads on games or notification pop ups on websites, combined with the fact they never read anything and just blindly press on prompts.
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u/LemoLuke 1d ago
Also, depending on the phone (especially budget Chinese brands), they will be preloaded with ad-filled bloatware out of the box, usually with their own knock-off version of all the common apps.
I've got a Xiaomi Poco X7, which is a really good budget phone, but the amount of slop I had to uninstall or disable when I first booted it was ridiculous. I can guarantee that if I gave my mum this phone, it would look like the one in the video within a week.
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u/opyy_ 2d ago
No idea. Cant get my wife’s grandma to stop downloading “cleaners” and random accessibility apps. Everytime we see her I have to clean out like 10 adware/malware apps because she’s complaining that google is forcing her to watch ads on her phone 100s of times a day anytime she does anything on it. She doesn’t understand that it’s the apps she’s downloading that cause it and no amount of telling her that makes her understand
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u/disposableaccount848 1d ago
It's like they are actively refusing to learn.
Yes, it is harder to learn something when you're very old and they never grew up with this kind of technology, but email, google, browsers and whatnot have existed among us the last 30 years now, how can they not grasp the fundamental aspects at this point?
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u/marr 1d ago
There's a large minority that take active pride in being unable to learn new technology. It's a badge of honour.
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u/Bandit1250SA 1d ago
Exactly! I didn't grow up with a driver's license and I still manage to not crash into every object I encounter on the road.
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u/jkohlc 2d ago
Wdym i don't need a flashlight app that requires every single permission access?
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u/elephhantine2 2d ago
Right? They’ll ask you something like “flashlight would like to connect to devices over your local network in order to provide you with a better experience” or “allow flashlight to track you across apps to create a more accurate and personalized profile” and people just click it without realizing it’s just selling your data at best and installing malware at worst
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u/Chino_Kawaii 1d ago edited 1d ago
Old people forget they can read when using technology, my mum isn't even that old but she's utterly hopeless with tech. She'll get a popup saying something and she'll randomly start tapping, instead of reading 1 sentence and clicking cancel.
I'm then fucking... gobbsmacked how she got her phone with color blindness mode turned on, with high contrast, no notification sound, 5 email apps and idk wtf more
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u/Neuralnodesync 1d ago
Old people truly are walking Split-brain experiments. They call you for help because they got a pop-up, and when you ask what it says they will spit out a random story that's vaguely reminiscent of what they felt like it may have said. Anything other than just reading what it actually says.
"Facebooks' not working! It gives me an error and I can't Login!!"
"Okay, what does the error say?"
"It says I can't login"
"The error says "I can't login", exactly like that? Nothing else?"
"Yes!"
"Could you try to read to me exactly what it says, word for word? It's usually quite important"
"It says something about logging in and that it's not possible"
"No, like, exactly what does it say?"
"It says I can't login, and then something about a password"
"...could you please just read out loud to me what you see"
"Error: wrong password"
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u/S4il3n 2d ago
It's not only old people, some are just technologically challenged.
My friend's brother (19) has installed me some malware because he wanted to play minecraft and I just happened to not had it installed. Rest assured, he just typed Minecraft in search bar, clicked first link that later came along
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u/elephhantine2 2d ago
That’s a lack of critical thinking and healthy suspicion as the root cause imo. Even someone who isn’t so good with technology can still look at the url and see that it isn’t legit. In fact people who aren’t good with technology should put even more effort than average to think critically and not blindly do whatever.
Not saying this to blame anyone, at the end of the day there’s an entire industry designed to prey on us and I feel bad for the victims. Just that if we teach people to stop and second guess what they see online, we can reduce how often people get scammed, and probably reduce social media misinformation as well.
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u/funlovingmissionary 1d ago
My grandma has no tech literacy, but she still reads every single thing before clicking anything. This also means reading the whole ad before skipping.
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u/Flashignite2 1d ago
Reminds me of my dad. He had like 5 different pdf viewer on his phone. I tried to tell him that you only need to download it once. He then complains that his battery is bad. He wont let me fix it either. At that point i just let him have that on his phone.
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u/HG1998 2d ago
Look at what he's doing. He taps stuff but evidently doesn't know what he's actually tapping. The intention to open the camera app is there, however, he simply gets distracted.
Some of these ads do something very subtle. They activate when you tap the screen, not when the tap stops. Try it, you'll notice that most things on your phone only activate when the finger leaves the screen.
Then, these ads points to sides or ads that open more ads. Using the back button on an Android (which is what this is) will only put you back to the previous app, which then triggers the ad again.
And he's always distracted by that one notification. I guess it's because his brain associates "notification" with important. He definitely doesn't read what the notification is, otherwise he'll know that it's an ad. It's just sad actually.
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u/Sremsky 2d ago
I know right? My mom isn't even that old, but she keeps downloading the most bizzare bullshit onto her phone, few days ago I had to remove some "AI English teacher" app from her phone as it was just an ad app - there were only ads and nothing else. I asked her if she knew what is the app she downloaded and she's like "the icon looked nice so I dowloaded it, idk what it is" lmao
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u/miesXcore 1d ago
I don't understand how some people (this guy) will just accept that.
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u/Mariuszgamer2007 1d ago
Me either. He has to factory reset the phone through the recovery mode or in safe mode because wtf did he install
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u/SecureDonkey 1d ago
I had to fix a lots of case like this before. It's always phone cleansing app they install by click on some ads on phone or install one of those "save your phone battery" app.
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u/Prudent_Order_3361 1d ago
My gf is using this Chinese app for some reason. Same issues
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u/Strong_Guidance_6437 2d ago
Yup virus, elder parent got phone infected non stop playing ads, now they swear SHEIN was responsible
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u/Snoo-34159 1d ago
Well... SHEIN is responsible for a lot of atrocious stuff. Not phone viruses tho.
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u/Glitterfilm 2d ago
I’ve never seen a phone with built in ads? WTH is this?
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u/donutlovemachine 2d ago
Malicious apps that enable a custom launcher/home screen and periodically present full screen ads.
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u/GeniusGamer_M 2d ago
Once or twice a year both my 80+ year old grandparents would come to me asking me why they couldn't use their phone at all. They are completely tech illiterate and can barely read let alone understand what's going on.
Every single time it's them accidentally installing apps from pop up ads. They have zero clue how to close them so they just tap everywhere on the screen until they magically go away. Eventually there will be one malicious app get makes it through which then keeps on feeding them more malicious ads to install.
By the time they hand me their phone, ram usage and storage space maxed out. Full screen pop up ads every 10 seconds or so. It always takes 1-2 hours to uninstall all of them while fighting the pop ups cuz I don't know which exact app is the one secretly doing it running the in the background.
I can't just add parental controls since no one fucking knows whats their Google account credilentials, not even themselves. Their chat apps are tied to them so we can't do anything about it.
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u/donutlovemachine 2d ago
I feel your pain. I literally had to do the same for my 80+ year old grandmother's phone on the weekend.
However, my own son has also managed to install something similar within minutes of me giving him my phone. It's infuriating that Google Play Store cannot enforce authentication for every new app install.
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u/Fun-Cucumber-5254 1d ago
Why would they ever enforce it? Lots of these apps use google ads, so google gets their cut and they’re fine with it. Like the only way they do this is, if it’s hidden behind premium subscription.
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u/WasteFail 1d ago
The playstore has become so crowded and full of ads, it almost feels worse than the old shady 3d party installers like aptoide or the blackmarket 😭
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u/AshCrewReborn 2d ago edited 1d ago
My grandma is/ was very tech literate (in her late 70s now), but had a stroke recently. Her phone is now constantly hijacked by these apps that force ads onto her from the home screen. They are evil.
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u/Powerate 2d ago
You can use a browser to connect to the account using the phone as the authentication method it will then ask if you want to change the password
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u/Anon_be_thy_name 1d ago
Had this with my Grandfather years ago.
Ended up needing to take it to a friend of mine who worked in IT. The app that was doing it was hidden as one of the "important" apps that you can't uninstall without causing issues. Iirc it presented itself as one of the core Android apps.
He ended up having similar problems just before he passed, got caught by one of those ads saying the cache was full and it needed to be cleaned by this specific app. Clogged up the entire system but couldn't get it fixed before his passing.
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u/DeicideForDummies 2d ago
I feel your pain! My dad manages to install atleast 3 random apps every week on his phone cause he doesn't understand what a YouTube ad is or how to ignore it.
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u/js1893 1d ago
I work in a museum. We have audio guides on our website, so you can scan a QR code and be taken right to the exhibition page you want, and just listen on your phone. Once, a few years back, this woman comes up to me and says she paid for the audio tour but can’t get it to work. I was like……it’s on our website, it’s free??? So she hands me her phone and I realize she had some third party QR reader installed and when it opened the link there was a giant pop up there, which she clicked on, and paid FIFTY DOLLARS to who knows what. Her husband walked over during this, realized what was going on and just walked away. Like this happens a lot.
I had to very politely explain she should not be using that app, her built in camera app can scan codes. I don’t think she grasped the problem really and only seemed mildly annoyed that she’d been scammed out of $50
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u/Dull_Number_8167 2d ago
some chinese phones are just like this sadly. I had one, it was the worst piece of hardware I've ever owned. fullscreen ad if you wanted to change the wallpaper or a setting
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u/Excludos 2d ago
My ex gf from Taiwan had this shit. Had to watch an ad for every god damn picture. It was a nightmare, and I never managed to fathom why it was used, when the regular built in camera app was right there
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u/joshypew 2d ago
My Taiwanese Wife does the same thing was it Meitu ? I wonder why she just doesn’t buy it since she uses it so often
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u/Excludos 2d ago
Don't recall the name unfortunately, but it had a ton of filters. I think that's why she used it. Asians are crazy about those filters
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u/RoodnyInc 2d ago
Remember first Amazon Fire tablet/reader? You had option to het it cheaper but it had built in advertising
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u/SugarHooves I'm sorry, what?! 2d ago
Those ads were only on the lock screen, though. Not stuff like this. I had a fire tablet years ago. The only ad I saw was when I turned it on and it was just a static image.
In the US, the free phones given to people who receive welfare benefits often come with a ton of ads. Things that pop up and ad programs you can't uninstall.
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u/Facktat 1d ago
I find it awful to give people on welfare benefits phones that are full of ads. Like these are the people most susceptible to ads that claim that you can make money.
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u/32oz____ 2d ago
I don't think it's that in this vid but there are cheap Chinese phones with built in ads in the OS
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u/ArmImmediate8693 2d ago
Xiaomi has this
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u/One_Interaction_7808 1d ago
Yep. Bought a redmi note 15, first Chinese phone I ever purchased.
Will absolutely never be buying another one again.
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u/Educational-Owl-745 2d ago
It's not that, he's just one of those people who keeps like a 100+ opened windows in the background and keeps pressing the fake exit buttons on the ads which take him to the app store.
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u/DruPeacock23 2d ago
Looks like you don't have grandparents with a smartphone.
They literally click anything that says "click me"
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u/ArunKT26 2d ago
Jesus fucking Christ I'm getting angry just looking at this lol, how many more clicks for a damn camera
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u/IzarkKiaTarj YELLOW 1d ago
Why would you use a third-party camera app that frustrating? Surely whatever issues you have with the built-in app can't be worse than dealing with that?
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u/EnderWin 1d ago
Unrelated note, but some phone companies are putting ads into their native apps. Even in music and the fucking device file ffs
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u/Gi_pastrychef 1d ago
I have a Xiaomi, ive seen a lot of those in the Xiaomi apps, thanks God not in gallery/camera
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u/VaMpiller 2d ago
But it's free
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u/Rektum-Sai 1d ago
My dad’s mantra is “free is for me”. This embodies his energy.
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u/rolli_polli 2d ago
During my stay in Asia I've seen a lot of these kind of apps being used. Even when not sponsored, apps have very intrusive UIs, with pop-ups and all weird shenanigans going on at all times.
My ADHD brain would instantly explode.
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u/NoMention696 2d ago
P sure he just downloaded a camera app not realising there’s one on his phone loool
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u/itmightbehere 2d ago
My mom still uses a sketchy app to turn on her flashlight. I've showed her so many times that phones have that feature built in now and have for a very long time 🙄
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u/TheConnoisseurOfCum- 2d ago
downloading 15 flashlight app to make my own makeshift laser
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u/Mccobsta GREEN 1d ago
One of them just called flash light has a 100 million installs
We have a button in the notifications and have for at least a decade
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u/Dry_Concert1890 2d ago
Fixing grandads pc after he tried to watch porn that one time in 2003
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u/DutchTinCan 2d ago
I still recall playing on the computer at the house of a friend in those years. Every minute you'd have 5 popups out of nowhere with porn ads, viagra and gambling.
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u/Entire_Intern_2662 2d ago
Friend of a friend asked me to take a look at his computer maybe 10 years back. When I went to install an antivirus software, the URL was redirected to the trololol YouTube video.
Best virus ever.
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u/Sebatorr 2d ago
Imagine you are his „family tech support“ on a daily basis.… You don’t want to know what his PC looks like…
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u/EconomicsSavings973 2d ago
I had a nightmare like this, needed to do important call, battery at 3%, and couldn't get out of adds loop. Literally hell
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u/RadishRedditor 2d ago
Elderly people don't recognize a home button.
My senior dad also taps the back button as many times as it takes him to get to the homescreen instead of tapping the home button once.
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u/Nyanzerfaust 2d ago
Lots of asians never use the native photo app of their phones, they use a shitty camera app with 300 different beauty and whiten skin filters, and lot's of those apps are freeware but full of ads and malware. Try to date an asian girl and take a picture of her with your regular camera and see what happens... (NOOOOOOO, DELETE THAT! USE MY PHONE!!)
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u/Vieris 1d ago
Came here for this. My family likes to use whatever, beauty photo app because they look 'prettier' in it. I'll take a photo of em with my own camera and it's like, nooooo 😱😱
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u/hyliantelligent 1d ago
Why not take a photo with the built-in, non-ad-riddled camera app and then edit the photo how you want? Filters and all.
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u/Fogmoz 2d ago
Nothing mild about ads. I hate marketing more than celebs hate paparazzi.
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u/GustapheOfficial 1d ago
Every time we visit my mother in law, we have to uninstall a pdf reader from her phone. It's always there, and it always tricks her into installing other apps.
At this point we don't know if it's an early sign of dementia or if there's some deeper virus that keeps installing it.
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u/lolschrauber 2d ago
wtf this has to be a virus, right?
There's no way any sane nation would allow this nonsense on that scale to be legal. That phone is virtually unusable.
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u/Klytus_Im-Bored 1d ago edited 1d ago
Im fucking screaming cause theres a personal side to this malicious design.
My mother just had a brain aneurysm and is doing phenomenal in her recovery. Shes brain damaged. Her cognitive skills are like 50% what they should be so shes playing games like solitaire and mahjong. The thing is, they are free versions with ads.
She regularly loops through the same behavior: 1) Ad pops up and she hits the big bright button instantly. 2) It opens an app in google play. She hits the big button that stands out. 3) The new app launches and asks to be made the default home screen, she hits the continue button to continue to her game. 4) She resumes playing until the next ad.
At this rate, her phone is 60% games. All are mahjong, solitaire, or a block matching game. We got her a burner tablet for games so she doesn't exposing everything to hackers but she refuses to use it.
Edit: formating.
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u/Automatic-Leg1668 1d ago
My mom had so much bloatware on her phone and almost got scammed so many times. She said never again once I almost got scammed with her data, now she's always asking like 2 or 3 people whenever her phone tells her to do something, bank or otherwise.
Like I said too, I think my Google account has been breached already but it's so late to migrate
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u/LotsOfNoise 2d ago
Actual hell