Some Motorola phones have been found quietly intercepting Amazon links and rerouting them through a third-party URL before adding an affiliate code and sending users to Amazon. The issue was first spotted by a Reddit user who noticed his Motorola Razr 60 Ultra was making requests to devicenative.com, a company that provides personalised, on-device mobile ads.
The preloaded Smart Feed app on the device was found to be handling these redirects, raising serious questions about what Motorola is doing with user traffic behind the scenes.
According to research by 9to5Google, a recent Smart Feed update, version 2.03.0070, appears to be responsible for the behaviour. However, the outlet was unable to reproduce the issue on a separate Moto phone after sideloading the same app, which makes the situation harder to pin down.
What adds another layer of strangeness is that the affiliate code being injected into Amazon links appears to belong to a fashion influencer.
It is unclear why Motorola would use a third-party affiliate code, particularly one that does not match any of the codes publicly associated with that influencer. This opens up the possibility that the code is being spoofed or impersonated rather than legitimately used.
There are a few ways to read this situation. The Smart Feed app may have been compromised, leading to this behaviour without Motorola's direct involvement.
Alternatively, with component pricing on the rise, Motorola may be looking at indirect affiliate revenue as a way to offset costs.
If it turns out the app was compromised, Motorola will need to act fast. Letting this linger will only hurt the company's reputation and erode user trust at a time when consumers already have plenty of reasons to be cautious about pre-installed apps.
For now, Motorola phone owners are advised to disable the Smart Feed app, even if they have not personally noticed anything unusual.
