No, since on GrapheneOS Google Play Store/Services doesn’t have permission to silently install/uninstall apps. They are sandboxed like any other app (i.e. F-Droid).
That’s overkill, with a rooted phone you can simply freeze (might be able to freeze it with ADB as well) or delete the Play store (it’s the Play Store where this Malware lives).
GMS and Account Manager will work just fine without the Play store.
Or, like the other person said you can just disable Play Protect.
How can it do that?
And won’t people just use piracy websites?
And Google already scans users phones and deletes apps?
it’s an emergency function that google silently introduced in all phones years ago. Theoretically it should be used if an app is widespread malware
What do I need to uninstall to disable this ‘feature’?
Disable “Play Protect” in your phone’s Security settings
Is there any evidence that this will really remove Google’s ability to (a) see what’s on your phone, and (b) delete whatever they want?
No, because they can always push anything over Play Services updates. But right now it does disable it.
android xD
Is GrapheneOS affected?
No, since on GrapheneOS Google Play Store/Services doesn’t have permission to silently install/uninstall apps. They are sandboxed like any other app (i.e. F-Droid).
the only workaround is to install a custom ROM without google play and google services
That’s overkill, with a rooted phone you can simply freeze (might be able to freeze it with ADB as well) or delete the Play store (it’s the Play Store where this Malware lives). GMS and Account Manager will work just fine without the Play store.
Or, like the other person said you can just disable Play Protect.