Samsung quietly removes Qihoo 360 library from Device Care via update

Samsung appears to have listened to its community and has decided to remove the Qihoo 360 storage scanner with the latest update to the Device Care suite. Galaxy smartphone users running Device Care version 11.0.02.42 will notice that the ‘powered by 360' logo has been removed, and so has the Qihoo 360 library, although some vestigial strings remain, according to a Reddit post.

You can read our full report in case you need a bit of catching up with these events. In short, about a month ago, a Reddit user found out that Samsung's smartphones come preloaded with a third-party storage scanner tool as part of the Device Care suite.

A few sensationalized articles emerged online shortly after. Samsung wasn't sending your files to China through the Qihoo 360 tool, as some stories would've wanted you to believe, but this collaboration with a Chinese company that had a bad reputation for spyware practices didn't sit well with Samsung fans.

New Device Care version is rolling out gradually

Even if Samsung and/or Qihoo 360 weren't spying on you, the Korean tech giant has quietly done away with the Qihoo 360 library and has put an end to the exaggerated reports of spyware. However, the update to Device Care is taking place gradually so it's not yet available everywhere.

We were able to test the update's availability on numerous devices in various regions, including five Galaxy Note 10/10+ units, the Galaxy Fold, and the Galaxy Tab S6. Out of all of these devices, only one Galaxy Note 10+ got the latest Device Care version. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Fold and Tab S6 run an even older version of Device Care (10.5.00.33) than the rest of the Note 10 units.

Make sure you check to see if you have the latest Device Care version (11.0.02.42) available to you. It doesn't seem to make a difference whether your phone has the January 2020 or February 2020 security patch, and you should be able to grab the latest update OTA or from the Play Store soon, assuming it's not already available at your end.