Android’s new sideload settings will carry over to new devices
androidauthority.com133 points by croemer 21 hours ago
133 points by croemer 21 hours ago
Play store is the largest distributor of spyware and viruses for Android.
Not even a small fraction of a percentage of scams come from installing software normally, but only from Google Play store.
This raises the question: Why publish web pages that discuss topics such as "sideloading". Who would be interested in that information
Who (besides you) reads googleblog.com, androidauthority.com and other sites that discuss these topics
Is it only a small fraction of a percentage of Android users
When Google makes the obviously bogus argument that Google Play policies, e.g., "sideloaoding" restrictions, are intended to "protect users", who is it addressing. Who is the audience. Is it the "average" Android user that Google claims to be protecting. Is it Android users who prefer F-Droid and not need Google's "help" in avoiding scams
What if Google Play policies protect Google from competition (cf. protecting users from scams) and this could have an effect on the stock price or on the profits of "app developers" or "ad tech" companies. Who would be interested in that information. Who would accept bogus claims about "protecting users" without question
Yeah. I had to remove malware from family phones because they installed the wrong "QR Code Scanner" out of the trillions of copies on the play store, which contained malware that somehow replaced the launcher on a Samsung phone and then showed ads all over the place. The Play store is fucking malware, Google services are malware, and the family member now uses a Pixel 9a with GrapheneOS which makes normie phone usage riskless and clean again. Fuck Google for Gaslighting us all with this Sideload change.
Stories like this is all my family members get iPhones. If Google wants to move to a walled garden too it should at least deliver on the walled garden benefits. No point otherwise.
Apple will enshittify at some point. The only long term way to go is open source.
Oh man, my grandpa also had an app replace the launcher on his phone! I forget what exactly it was pushing but needless to say it's been removed.
I really like f-droid in this case because I can be so much more sure about using an app there than from play-store
> Play store is the largest distributor of spyware and viruses for Android.
I think all companies are taking part in somewhat of a double-speak. Meta is lobbying for child safety and so many other things.
I feel like they really can't come up loud and say what exact reasons they are doing this (for locking down Android) and thus have to use this as an excuse.
It's all smokescreens and mirror to a certain degree.
They are (primarily) doing it because a few governments asked / forced them to. THe scams you see in the iPhone-heavy US are very different than the scams you see in other places.
> Not even a small fraction of a percentage of scams come from installing software normally, but only from Google Play store.
This change is not about stopping malware/scams. Malware/scams is just the gaslighting excuse for the change.
The actual reason for the change is to try to protect playstore profits. With the lawsuit that forced them to allow alternate "stores" they saw the money stream shrinking, and this is their attempt at propping up the money flow for as long as possible.
It's a very small concession. The high initial friction still means when someone comes to me with a problem and I tell them the solution is in F-Droid, they have to wait a day. Most give up and pick a different, less trustworthy solution from Google Play.
Incredibly small concession that doesn’t warrant this article’s absolutely insane framing: “Even less of a problem than we thought,” “very, very good news,” “already sounded perfectly manageable.”
The author is so giddy to defend this monopolistic restriction on Google’s part. Hackers can use F-Droid without annoyance, but this really does kill any chance at normies using it. They absolutely will use the worst spyware on Google Play instead, and the author seemingly loves it.
I've given up on getting normies to care. So long as we can use these things on our own terms, it's fine.
"On our own terms", as long as it's approved by Google,.. for now. Surely we bear no resemblance to frogs in warming water, and we do not find ourselves praying that the deal is not further altered.
Not to mention that the "concession", such that it is, will presumably only work if you sign into a Google account. Presumably, this will require that you have Google Play Services installed.
Of course, many people who want to de-Google their phones won't want to do either. This is an attack on people who want to keep their lives separate from Google.
Given the Epic settlement means Google is allowing alternate app stores, and also the delay only applies for unregistered developers, I'm not certain it won't actually get easier to get folk set up on F-Droid.
It still remains to be seen what the actual requirements are, and even if F-Droid could become "approved" that doesn't mean they want to. Time will tell.
"only applies for unregistered developers" but remember the whole point is to allow Google to pull your "registered developer" status on a whim. Something they've shown over and over again they cannot be trusted with
But if there's a court order saying Epic and F-Droid have to be registered developers, they can go to jail for doing that.
Why the hell should we "mother may I" with Google for running apps on our own phones if it isn't sourced from the Play Store?
The "security" rationale is horseshit given just how much malware is readily download able on the Play Store. Google never cleans its own house before going after others.
Don't you know? If one elderly person gets scammed we all deserve to be infantilized.
Wouldn't it be something if, given all the surveillance already in place, law enforcement punished the scammers instead of the innocent?
But then how would they police what you install?
Maybe you have the criminal idea of installing an adblocker, for example.
That is not allowed since corporations need to make money.
The government and ad networks need to track you for your benefit.
Ads are needed before listening to each minute of a song.
You must submit to crpyto miners running in the background from the ads, increasing your electricity bill and pollution.
Only USA sanctioned and approved ads are allowed, also. We wouldn't want you seeing an ad from a competing entity, right?
If you install an ablocker, you are a terrorist and broke 324582 American laws.
The scammers are often in a very different country than the victim. Finding the scammer is only 50% of the work, the other 50% is diplomacy and hoping the other side is willing to extradite. This is not made easier if the police force in the scammer's country is extremely corrupt.
This is why those scams so often rely on gift cards (or sometimes on cash which a local mule converts to crypto).
Maybe they can just sanction that person? Block them from making phone calls to the country and publishing apps?
Many banking scams involve fake checks and deposits into other accounts, but I don’t see the government or banks taking active steps to stop them.
(nevermind that the scams are extraordinarily likely to come through Meta, Google, Apple, Amazon)
The scams are likely to some from outside Play. In the US, these scams don't run because iPhone is the dominant platform and side loading in iOS is not possible. In the rest of world they are widespread.
"Likely"? Do you mean that based on actual data, or are you using it as a weasel word so you can present whatever convenient "facts" that benefit Google as truth?
I’m betting on the latter. No Kitboga video mentions custom Android apps. What actually appears on almost all videos are online ads/spam or fake celebrity accounts messaging random people on Facebook.
It's funny how you aggressively push solutions that ignore the most common scam vectors investigators encounter. Could it be a coincidence that your proposal conveniently places every aspect of people’s lives at the mercy of big businesses? Or that the scam vector you downplay, ads and social media, just happens to be cash cows for some of the richest companies in history?
We already have plenty of paid lobbyists cheering the transfer of wealth from the poorest to the richest. There's no need to do that dirty work for free. Weaponizing the elderly being scammed of their life savings while protecting those that benefit from it is beyond messed up.
Outside Play, on YouTube or via Google Ads for many of them. Likewise for Meta ads.
The scams that are happening in the rest of world are calls posing as bank support about urgent security issues and telling people to install apps to protect their accounts.