[mbag]

This spooked me as well. I never used any of the Samsung apps on my phone and never created the Samsung account. Since apps come pre-installed, it was in the back of my head that Samsung could access the data anyway, but I dismissed it as company suicide to do something like this.

Since so many people received notification, it could be that some "Samsung God mode" exists.

[totalZero]

On the idea that taking and sharing your personal data without an opt-in would be company suicide:

Samsung has already hit this sort of scandal with its smart televisions and nobody really cared.

https://www.cnet.com/news/samsungs-warning-our-smart-tvs-rec...

The expectation that the free market will keep companies from spying on us...well, it would be nice, but increasingly it seems to be wishful thinking.

[hawski]

Samsung can already do OTA updates. Their software runs on the phone. You already have to put some trust on them.