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Google Restricts Android Sideloading—What It Means for User Autonomy and the Future of Mobile Freedom – Purism

⁨289⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨excel24@feddit.org⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://puri.sm/posts/google-restricts-android-sideloading-what-it-means-for-user-autonomy-and-the-future-of-mobile-freedom/

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Comments

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  • viking@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    This article is a thinly veiled ad paired with fearmongering to get gullible users to buy the shit phones they sell (or not, some people have been on “waitlists” for 5+ years after providing a full payment).

    Granted, their phones are fully open, but have next to no apps.

    Personally I’ll stick with Android 12, rooted, and see what the future brings.

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  • Null_Ritual@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    This sucks, I don’t want a world where o have to carry around 2 devices (a private one and a standard spyware one)

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  • MolecularCactus1324@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    This is an ad

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    • Null_Ritual@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      Its a straight ad

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  • p_kanarinac@retrolemmy.com ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    That sounds illegal.

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    • elvith@feddit.org ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Depends. Are you from the EU or not?

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      • p_kanarinac@retrolemmy.com ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I am, that’s why it sounds illegal. :D

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  • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    The restrictions on apk access over the past 10 years have already been an annoying pita. Many of the best power user apks have had to gut themselves over their original functionality, all while obtaining root access over your owned devices has become harder or next to impossible.

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    • altphoto@lemmy.today ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Let them keep those. I hereby declare that if I don’t own the thing, I ain’t buying it. So no root, no $$$.

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      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Yeah, but I still really like my micro SD card slot and pen on my note 20 ultra. Dunno what I’ll do when I have to replace it.

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  • throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Purism is sketchy btw:

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKegmu0V75s

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IjUryQOlgk

    (Louis Rossman videos explaining how a customer was denied a refund for a “pre-order” and then they tried to coerce Louos to take down the video.)

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    • hummingbird@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      As a person who experienced the customer support regrading preorders I can confirm this firm is extremly sketchy.

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    • Canuck@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Never had an issue with them. Writing from my Librem 5

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  • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    In parallel, Google has rolled out its Play Integrity API, which allows developers to limit app functionality when sideloaded, effectively pushing users to install apps only through the Google Play Store.

    All of this while EU forbids Apple to do the same, what is the idea here? Measuring how EU reacts?

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    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Is it the same though? Google is allowing the developers to choose to prevent sideloading. I thought Apple’s issue was that they prevented side loading completely.

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  • kratoz29@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Degoogled ROMs are gonna be the bomb in the future.

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    • anticurrent@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Maybe you should curb your enthusiasm a bit. have you seen what it take to unlock the bootloader from most manufacturers? you might even need your grandma’s birth certificate before you’re allowed to do so in the future

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      • kadup@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

        Certainly depends on where you live.

        Unlocking a Samsung phone is trivial here.

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      • kratoz29@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I am aware, but what choices do we have? I for one stopped using banking apps in my Android phone, not a big deal, we didn’t have banking apps there pre 2007 right?

        I know not everyone can do it, but we can fight back in our own ways.

        And voting with your wallet should be an obvious statement at this point.

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  • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    From what I can tell, all of this shit is on Google versions of Android. If you are on AOSP such as lineage or graphene, from what I understand this has no effect whatsoever.

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    • throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Apps who’s developers have enabled the Google Play Integrity APIs will not run on custom roms.

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      • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I’m sorry, but in that case, it wasn’t worth running the app to begin with. You can either find a third-party app that lets you access the same content, such as Newpipe and YouTube, or you can use it from a web browser, such as your bank, and if you can’t do either of those, then just don’t fucking use that service.

        I was willing to totally switch banks because my previous bank required me to use a mobile app and I did not want to do so. If I must go through some annoyance to use something that works properly, I will.

        For me at least, running as much open source as I can possibly do is worth more than the inconvenience caused by not being able to use these shit services.

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      • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        cool, any dev who requires that is acting in bad faith against my privacy and doesn’t deserve my support.

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  • Mwa@thelemmy.club ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    The only reason why I got a Android

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  • Integrate777@discuss.online ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    In Singapore, lots of boomers are downloading scam apps from facebook lured by promises of discounts and free gifts, handing out accessibility privileges, and they’ll even argue vehemently against loved ones or bank staff when being confronted. When it all inevitably blows up, they blame absolutely everyone except themselves, including praising Apple for some reason.

    Being the largest voting block, they managed to get banks responsible for reimbursing their losses and there was even an idea floated of getting everyone to contribute to a shitty scam insurance fund. Many major banking apps are paranoid af and block usage from simple things like usb debugging turned on.

    Absolutely stupidity. And there’s nothing we can do about it when the politicians love them so much.

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    • pineapplelover@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Usb debugging is sketchy as shit. You should almost never turn that on, and immediately turn it off once you’re finished with whatever it is you’re doing with that on.

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      • mazzilius_marsti@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        agree completely. But I recently broke my phone screen, the usual Samsung green screen of death, and I wish I had that turned on to copy the data over lol.

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  • Zagorath@aussie.zone ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Yikes this really doesn’t look good. Is there any reporting on it from independent journalists (or anyone else who isn’t also advertising their own competing operating system)?

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    • rmuk@feddit.uk ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Not that I’ve seen and I’d take what Purism say with a grain of salt: they’ve acted like pretty shitty gatekeepers themselves. Nothing they mentioned in the article seems too egregious in truth and they’re exaggerating the scale of it: Play Store app DRM exists already, and the restrictions on browser-downloaded apps they mention can be bypassed (albeit by having to go into settings) and don’t apply to apps installed through other apps stores (F-Droid, etc).

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      • Zagorath@aussie.zone ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Nothing they mentioned in the article seems too egregious in truth

        Doesn’t it? To be honest, if the article is telling the truth and not exaggerated, I find this pretty egregious. How you installed an app should be irrelevant, so the idea of an API to say “did this come from the Play Store” is fucking shit. And the ability to block installation of apps that call certain APIs entirely is even worse.

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  • Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    effectively pushing users to install apps only through the Google Play Store

    I wonder what this will mean for Aurora and Fdroid etc., unless the author has no knowledge of these

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    • thatradomguy@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      This is my immediate first thought seeing this. This fucking sucks. Part of the whole benefit of something like LineageOS or e (OS?) was being able to use Fdroid to stay away from Google as much as possible. Now this is going to potentially make things weird.

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      • mybuttnolie@sopuli.xyz ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        doesn’t do anything to f-droid, but probably kills aurora a bit. the developer can prevent their app from being sideloaded. why would one prevent that if they are distributing via f-droid too?

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      • Emi@ani.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I hope android has nothing to do with Google play store, thought they are their own store without connection to Google.

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    • rikudou@lemmings.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Well, both will be unable to install certain types of apps.

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      • curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        That doesnt appear to be true, the restriction seems to be on apps being installed from file managers, web browsers, messaging, etc.

        F-droid and the like are not part of that list.

        This still isn’t good, but it doesnt stop you from having F-droid manage your messaging apps it would seem.

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      • Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Aaaaand now I’m carrying around a laptop again, at least mini pcs are tiny now, maybe a small handheld would do…

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  • flop_leash_973@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Are they talking about the changes that were made that allow a dev to prevent their app from launching if it fails a Play integrity check?

    If so I don’t see that as a big deal since it is up to the dev to use it. OSS devs that want to distribute their app via apk download won’t enable it, and anyone distributing cracked apks will just disable that along with whatever other changes they are making.

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    • KingRandomGuy@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Some apps only require ‘basic’ play integrity verification, but now check to see if they’re installed via the Play Store. They refuse to run if they’re installed via an alternative source.

      This has been a problem for GrapheneOS, since some apps filter themselves out of the Play Store search if you don’t pass strong play integrity, despite the fact that they don’t require it. Luckily Graphene now had a bypass for this.

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  • masterofn001@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    There is exactly one app I use that is available only on play store - my bank.

    I don’t really need the app.

    They have a website.

    I have a few phones, just got one that now has grapheneOS.

    I’ve been using it for a few weeks to see how it works before I switch over anything to use it as my main. it has a lot of very interesting privacy/security features to test out.

    Either way, I don’t get anything from the play store anymore.

    It’s F(L)OSS or a website.

    As god intended.

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    • Null_Ritual@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      😸

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  • Luffy879@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Eh, if you are still on a Gservices Version of Android you are lost anyway

    So I just urge y’all to step back and watch at this clownshow.

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  • vala@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    K bye

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  • stsquad@lemmy.ml ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    From the article it sounds like the limitations come for some app types downloaded directly from a browser. I think this doesn’t affect alternate app stores like f-droid where you are effectively delegating approval to their process.

    I have come across the other limitations mentioned with the Home Assistant companion app which I could only get matter registration to work with the version downloaded from the Play store.

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    • bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Well, but where do you get F-Droid? Or stuff like ReVanced Manager.

      Or Epic’s stuff. Wasn’t Google just now sued for this shit and nobody understood why Google lost and Apple didn’t because you can easily sideload on Android.

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      • manxu@piefed.social ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I completely agree. Unless Google is forced to install more than one app store by default, or forced to have multiple app stores downloadable on Play Store, three is no realistic way to install a third party app store on a phone. In both cases, Google's cooperation is required.

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      • stsquad@lemmy.ml ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        The article says it only applied to apps requesting certain permissions. I agree I’m an ideal world it would be nice to get f-droid directly from the Play store but at least according to the article the ability to install it isn’t being blocked here.

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    • masterofn001@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      It’s funny because one browser I use is downloaded from the browsers website which I then use to install the update to said browser.

      Google needs a Luigi.

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    • catloaf@lemm.ee ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Maybe for the Singapore thing. For the play integrity thing, it applies to apps from anywhere except the play store directly. I use Aurora to install apps that say “not compatible with your device” for no reason. But a week or two ago ago, they started blocking access and saying I needed to install from the play store.

      Fortunately I was able to downgrade and they kept working, but I don’t know how long that will last. At some point the server side will change the API.

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      • throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        So you can’t use banking apps, or you mean like you cant even use F-Droid FOSS apps at all?

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  • dzajew@piefed.social ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    well, it sucks

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