Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

234 points

4 years ago

My wife is currently in Germany and had cell broadcast warnings disabled on her Android 11 device. Apparently, the local carrier she uses turns them back on remotely. She gets notified of this. "Settings changed by carrier."

(1) Were you aware that carriers can remotely override your settings like this? (2) Any strategies to keep something like this from happening besides rooting the device? (3) How do you feel about this type of remote control by a third party?

I must say I strongly dislike losing control over my own device. It feels dystopian to me.

I also couldn't find any mention of this particular power of carriers apart from one lonely Reddit post about someone trying to turn off Amber alerts [1].

---------------- EDIT: Additional info for clarity:

The settings I am referring to are under "Apps & notifications"/"Wireless emergency alerts". They are about controlling whether to and which alerts one wants to receive on their phone.

It's an unlocked Android One device. The carrier seems to be able to remotely change these settings (see the referenced Reddit post as well), which I would never expect. It seems to be because of the SIM the phone uses and the network it connects to. No user-controlled software change like updates.

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[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/zebvs4/settings_changed_by_carrier/

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