On the heels of launching its flagship foldable phone globally, Motorola has found itself in the middle of a controversy – one that questions the brand’s marketing deals. The issues emerged after some users observed their new Motorola devices getting quietly intercepted by a third-party web tracking and affiliate link while opening the Amazon Shopping app.
What was even more concerning was that the issue plagued the company’s premium Razr series foldable phones!
Motorola, however, was quick to respond to the controversy. In an official statement shared with Financial Express Digital, the company clarified, stating, “Motorola and Device Native jointly developed an app search and suggestion experience for the Moto App Launcher, designed to help users quickly find and launch apps they already have installed on their devices.”
Going further, the company iterated, “Recently, Motorola acted quickly to resolve an issue that was identified, which caused some users in the US launching the Amazon Shopping app to be routed through a web tracking link before opening the app. This behaviour was unintended and resulted in an inconsistent user experience.”
The Motorola spokesperson confirmed that the issue was taken care of, and Razr users in the US can expect the phone to launch the installed apps as intended. “Upon identifying the issue, we promptly corrected the routing configuration,” explained Motorola.
“Motorola takes user experience, privacy, and platform integrity seriously and will continue to closely monitor the system to ensure expected behaviour across devices,” added the company.
It is also committed to making responsible disclosure, as well as transparent and collaborative engagement with the researchers to identify and address potential issues.
Amazon is yet to share an official statement on the matter.
Motorola-Amazon affiliate link controversy: What happened
The issue came to light when a Reddit user shared a clip showing their new Motorola Razr 60 Ultra behaving weirdly when they opened the Amazon shopping app. Every time they tapped on the Amazon Shopping app, their mobile web browser (Google Chrome) would briefly flash on the screen, opening a “sketchy-looking URL” before instantly redirecting back to the official Amazon interface.
Soon after, many Razr 60 Ultra owners and some tech publications investigated the claim and successfully managed to replicate the behaviour on a premium Razr Fold unit, a phone that recently launched in India.
Those who investigated found that the redirect only occurred when users launched the Amazon app from the phone’s app drawer. If the app was opened via a standard homescreen shortcut, it functioned normally, opening as expected. Because the web browser redirect happened within a fraction of a second, it was an incredibly subtle process that most users would easily miss.
We tried to replicate the same on our review samples of the Motorola Razr Fold and Edge 70 Pro, but our Indian units didn’t show any such glitch.
What users found behind the scenes
Using Android Debug Bridge (ADB) network logs, tech researchers traced the unauthorised rerouting back to a hidden, pre-installed Motorola system application called Smart Feed. The behaviour seemed tied to a recent software update (version 2.03.0070), as devices running older iterations of the Smart Feed app did not intercept app launches.
Network logs revealed that when a user clicked the Amazon icon in the app drawer, the Smart Feed app intercepted the command and pinged devicenative.com — a platform that specialises in delivering on-device mobile advertising solutions and has a known integration partnership with Motorola.
However, there was more. The final URL injected an affiliate code into the system. The software temporarily routed traffic through kira-abboud.com, a domain linked to a fashion influencer. The system also injected a specific Amazon associate tag (sramz-kff-008-20). The investigations showed that neither the URL nor the code matched any of the official public affiliate links used by the influencer herself.
This led to widespread confusion over whether a third-party bad actor had compromised the application. There were also concerns on whether an unauthorised affiliate scheme was running under the radar.
Motorola faced complaints from consumers
Once the incident had gone viral, the revelation sparked immediate outrage across tech forums. Many took to social media to express deep frustration, especially considering that the devices costing upwards of $1,300 to $1,900 were utilising adware-style tactics usually associated with low-end and budget smartphones.
Some users also drew unfavourable comparisons to historical adware scandals, including the infamous 2015 “Superfish” incident involving Motorola’s parent company, Lenovo. Back then, it was found that Lenovo laptops were shipped with pre-installed software that intercepted secure web traffic to inject advertisements.
Motorola, however, reached out with a statement, admitting that the rerouting was nothing more than a technical configuration error, not a malicious revenue-grabbing scheme.
Note that the issue was largely restricted to the US region, and no such complaints were made for Indian units.
Are Motorola smartphones safe?
With Motorola confirming the issue is limited to US handsets and announcing a rectification following the same, it seems that users can continue using their devices safely.
Over the past few launches, we have observed that Motorola’s premium devices in India are usually free from the bloatware that its Edge series devices come pre-installed with. The Razr Fold, which we recently reviewed, is devoid of any bloatware and spammy apps/services. The same can be said for the Motorola Signature, which had the option to enable a Taboola newsfeed in the app tray as a secondary tab but was disabled out of the box. The recent Edge series devices, like the Edge 70 Pro and Edge 70 Fusion, come with Taboola news feed services and the Glance widget for the lcokscreen – the latter applicable on a majority of midrange Android smartphones launched lately.