Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – A number of Chinese cellphone brands are warning users about applications made by Google. Brands such as Huawei, Honor, and Vivo detect applications as TrojanSMS-PA malware.

The brand also urged the removal of Google apps. Because these applications are considered high risk.

Warnings are also sent to users. Bleeping Computer said the pop-up warning said Security Threat at the top.

When the user presses the View Details option, an alert will appear that the application has been detected sending SMS messages secretly. The application will steal users’ personal data which ends in information leakage.

“The app was detected to send SMS privately, induce users to pay with adult content, download/install the app privately, or steal personal information, which may cause property damage and privacy leak,” the security alert details.

“We recommend uninstalling it immediately,” the warning said.

A number of users reported this issue on Google support forums and Reddit for Vivo posts, Huawei forums, and various other Android communities.

Bleeping Computer also reported contacting Google to ask if the app update might cause an increase in malware warnings. A Google spokesperson explained that Google Play Protect does not trigger the warning.

“This security notification was not triggered by Google Play Protect and appears to come from a device that is not Play Protect certified and does not have access to officially download core Google applications from Play,” said a Google spokesperson, quoted from Bleeping ComputerFriday (10/11/2023).

According to reports Bleeping Computer, the alert is displayed on Huawei devices with core Google apps pre-installed. There are no other applications in it.

If the user has not side-loaded the application on a Huawei, Vivo or Honor cellphone, it is best to ignore the warning. Users can run the device as usual.

The warning can also be turned off by going to Settings > Apps > Optimizer > App Info > Storage > Clear Cache / Clear Data, then reboot the device. Apart from that, you can also delete and re-install the Huawei Optimizer application.

Meanwhile, it is possible that the warning is a false positive. However, there has been no confirmation from the device maker.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

(npb/npb)