[Onetouch Idol 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sloshnmosh:
Thank you for helping other users to remove this adware/spyware.

The issue with Alcatel's decision to push this trash on to our devices shows that they absolutely do not care one bit about the end user and would sell us out for a quick buck even if it means violating Terms of Service, "Privacy" policies or even basic security of our devices.

Automatic updates are (supposed to be) for developers to add patches to help an apps performance or to fix any bugs/errors or patch any vulnerabilities in their app as in the case of web browsers or banking apps.

Unfortunately unscrupulous app developers (and now PHONE MANUFACTURERS) are using this safety/performance update feature to force ads and questionable "extra" software without our permission.

The MAIN problem here was that there was no "Opt-in" or "Opt-out" for the newly added Hawk Cleaner and McAfee "antivirus", nor were there any prominent listings of any privacy policies to advise the end user (us ) of how our data is being handled.

I have been warning users for a very long time now to avoid these "cleaner" and "antivirus" apps because they do exactly the opposite of what they claim to do.

Cleaner apps can only remove very small amounts of data unless your phone is ROOTED because they have limited access to various locations on your device.

And when these cleaner apps shut down running processes (claiming to clean RAM), these processes will usually just immediately restart which causes your device to work harder than if they were left running.

And then these cleaner apps serve up advertising which uses up your mobile data, processing power and battery as well as using up space on your device for the advertising images that are being served in a cache as well as endless log files so the developer can keep track of what the user purchases in any of the ads as well as boatloads of "analytic" files that shows the developer which activities the user uses most and other aggregated data to further push more targeted advertising.

So no, these "cleaner" apps are total GARBAGE!

Which brings me to "antivirus" apps.

Not only do they do everything that I mentioned above as far as adding extra weight with "analytic" files and image caches, they also chew up storage space to hold any "virus" detection signatures.

But the REAL reason(s) I warn people not to install these so-called "antivirus" apps is that they do the same thing if not WORSE than any malware can do.

They scan all your files, media and documents. web bookmarks, installed applications, websites you visit, how long you use your apps, when you turn off and on your phone..and the list goes on and on.

They claim not to collect any "personal identifiable" information such as your name but they can EASILY tell exactly who you are by the aggregated data.

And then they sell all this aggregated data to advertisers and their "affiliates" which combine that data with other aggregated data to where they know your name, address, phone number, email, friends, employer. when you sleep, your location, etc, etc, etc.

Some of the antivirus/cleaning apps I've tested also use the users access tokens to allow the app to interact with your social media apps such as Facebook and Twitter and can push ads into your feeds and aggregate the users Facebook "Likes" and Twitter #HASHTAGS to sell to advertisers.

Why do you think these developers and phone manufacturers try to desperately get people to install their cleaner/antivirus apps?

Do you really think they are worried about your storage space or that you might get a "virus" on your phone?

Some antivirus app developers go so far as to break the law trying to get users to install their app:

http://smisecurity.altervista.org/DFNDR.html

The only real difference between these "antivirus" apps and an honest to God virus is that your data is being stolen by a corporation rather than some dude in his moms basement.

Here is a link from AndoidPit that states the same thing: https://www.androidpit.com/android-apps-you-should-remove-immediately

Also, if you would like to learn more about your device and how applications work there are plenty of great websites to choose from.

I recently found this blog that covers many techniques into a single site: https://freeandroidforensics.blogspot.com/