Customers have been annoyed by Samsung's deal to pre-install Facebook on devices, including Galaxy phones, because the app can only be disabled, not deleted
- Galaxy owners take to Twitter to complain about permanent app — Pre-install deals are common, but privacy concerns are rising
Context & Ripple Effects
Samsung's Facebook pre-install deal lands in a familiar arc: Bloomberg reports Galaxy owners taking to Twitter because the bundled app can only be disabled, not deleted. The sensitivity is heightened by reporting that Facebook had given 60+ device makers, including Samsung, deeper access to users' personal info through private APIs than previously known.
Precedent cuts both ways. A Chinese consumer protection group sued Samsung and Oppo over bloatware in 2015, and the resulting patch letting users delete bloatware was applied only in China — meaning Samsung has already demonstrated it can ship deletion rights when legally compelled, and chose not to extend them elsewhere.
First-order effects
- Galaxy buyers get a phone carrying a Facebook app they cannot remove, only disable — an immediate flashpoint for complaints on Twitter and a privacy optics problem for Samsung at launch time.
Second-order effects
- The deal template spreads rather than retreats: OnePlus went on to preload its OnePlus 8 and Nord series with Facebook bloatware baked into the OS, showing rivals see pre-install revenue as worth the backlash.
- Samsung's own hardware strategy doubles down on the same monetization instinct, later piloting promotions and ads on the Cover Screens of $1,800+ Family Hub refrigerators — pushing bundled commercial content further into devices users paid premium prices for.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, undeletable pre-installs become a recurring target for consumer-protection litigation outside China too, since the 2015 suit showed courts can force deletion patches and vendors apply them only where required.
- Device makers increasingly treat shipped software as a revenue surface — pre-install fees, then ads — which structurally shifts the buyer's relationship from owning a clean device to renting one with embedded commercial tenants.
The trend: Handset and appliance makers are converting bundled software into a standing revenue line, with user backlash and consumer-protection suits as the only visible counterweight.