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Fuck off Google, now we need degoogled phones more than ever.
*Sent from my cheap as fuck pixel 8a running graphene os
Edit: ducking autocorrect you ducking duck
The point of this is to break Fdroid, as the point of removing device tree publishing from their phones was to remove third party ROMs that would ignore the requirement for verification, as well as the changes to AOSP updates. This is a war on users that want to keep control of their phones and when it's done, you will not be able to escape the enshittification and surveillance. And I'm convinced that was the price they paid to get out of the FTC lawsuit.
That also means they now will know about every app installs, worldwide. So when the government comes in and ask who have installed this app they decided is bad, they can come get you.
Signal, VPNs, they'll have a list of everyone opting out of government-mandated backdoors.
LineageOS so worth losing Play Integrity.
That also means they now will know about every app installs, worldwide.
Wait, how? Also, don't they already?
Apps from outside the Play Store? No, because previously your phone had no reason to ask Google anything. You could always not sign in to Google and disable Play Protect and use F-Droid and Obtainium.
But now, it needs to check developer signatures to know if it's a verified developer, and it obviously can't cache all of them as the size would be insane.
And that in turn implies that your phone needs to reach out to Google and be like yo, is this app banned?
That query gives them at minimum the IP of the user, the package name, and the time at which it happened.
And thus they can effectively track anyone using say, privacy apps, making it that much riskier to use them in places where they're not allowed.
For your "safety".
Apps from outside the Play Store? No, because previously your phone had no reason to ask Google anything.
Play store seems to be sending list of all applications to ask for available updates. This is observable because play store offers me updates for apps I installed via f-droid and obtanium.
But now, it needs to check developer signatures to know if it's a verified developer, and it obviously can't cache all of them as the size would be insane.
Not how signatures usually work. You check the signing key (certificate) is signed by google key and you fetch a revocation list (banned developers). Of course, google could implement it in the way you suggest in theory, but I find it unlikely, since it would block offline installation for no reason.
They said it would require network access and that they would have a handful of popular apps preloaded to avoid too much disruption so those can be installed offline. In practice that probably means Google apps, Meta apps and other big corp apps.
They also have you register package names with them, not just a certificate.
I was hoping it would be a certificate situation but we're kind of past Google using the least intrusive and privacy preserving options.
I must have missed that. Well, there goes any possible excuse about security, since they are going out of their way to make it less privacy preserving...
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Why cant we be trusted with installing apps on our phones? Its my device, ill do what I want!
Its so dumb.
Just wait until they start pushing this with computers too. We have continually coddled normies by dumbing shit down instead of pushing them to be smarter. No doubt they'll look at this as a good thing too.
From what I understand that is why Valve started working on their own operating system and hardware.
Once ARM on PC takes off it's over.
x86 is far too ingrained for that to happen. Even if it takes over on the consumer side of things, enterprise will still be stuck on x86 and you know how difficult it is to get them to change. The odds of it dying is exceedingly low.
This is one reason why the changes to the boot process on X86 were a major concern, if machines only boot an an OS with a "trusted" signing keys then it is a pretty straight path to MS-only. Lack of published architecture assist gets here and there are X86 machines that will fail spectacularly on Linux due to this (weird EFI boot stuff, certain chipsets for such drivers can't be had or made, etc). Hardware-level DRM is a major threat.
Then add in stuff like browser-based DRM. Oh cool, you can install whatever you want but this differently stuff will only play on Chrome with the DRM extension enabled, maybe sending CPUID info, and doing a bunch of other stuff for lock-in that makes the IE6+ActiveX/MS-JS pale in comparison
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There are plenty of ARM on PC examples and there will always be an alternative option that is open there. It's too entrenched.
We need to free mobile devices with functional distros like mobian/postmarketos that are fully functional.
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Thank god we have Linux. Let's just hope Linux becomes viable for phone as well
Meh, Linux. There's an alternative for those who want it, not a big deal. Smartphones, and most ARM devices are just weird to me. Device specific images, flashing, crap. Why can't they just be PC-like?
Arm is slowly advancing on pcs.. We'll have bootlocked pcs in no time
All the "Western" Empires are in decline. A lot of Europe, Australia, Canada, USA are all doing this shit at the same time clearly in cooperation with one another for anti privacy.
The corporations meanwhile want their increasingly walled in gardens and diseased governments won't stop them as long as they get their back doors and data mines.
edit:
Reminded me of something. I was watching one of the few FuriOS reviews on YouTube, and the guy happened to be Australian. He took a moment to mention that he couldn't use the phone at all on specific mobile service providers because they only allowed white-listed pre-approved hardware.
That's pretty sickening.
All the “Western” Empires are in decline.
Its why I'm slowly losing my will to live.
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"Google, however, has decided anonymity is too risky. "
The rest of the sane universe appear to be deciding Google is too risky.
The cognitive dissonance with saying that the current state of Android is "too risky" without giving a single example of why it supposedly is.
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When it announced developer verification, it said the process would not evaluate the content of an app.
Ok, sure. The ICE Block app Google just pulled from Play Store will not be evaluated.
you mean Apple? the app was exclusively on iOS. it was a doxxing target from the get-go ran by an amateur that ran his database with unfixed vulnerabilities
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.reddot.alerts&hl=en-US
Google removed RedDot.
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Paid or free, All I know is that I won't be buying any device i can't install my own apps on.
if only...
As part of this so-called improved verification, Google should also be held liable for any damages caused by malicious applications.
but no, regulators won't do shit and they'll have the cake and eat it too
governments are becoming the puppets of big tech, in 50 years we'll have night city IRL
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They should rebrand it to aOS since it's quickly becoming just as shit trash as iOS. I wonder how many people will jump ship to iOS where they still get a shitty OS but with some modicum of privacy OOTB as an added bonus
My next phone is going to be as basic as possible and I'll have to start carrying a laptop with me everywhere again.
A lot already have actually, writing was on the wall back when they dropped the version names which was also around the time a lot of the original Android hardware OEMs gave in which left us with carriers giving you the option between Samsung, Google, and Motorola.
Then they abused Trump's first term to ban Huawei for spyware since it was competing too well.
The frontend UI sucks, the backend ART sucks, the process pausing system can't hold most of your app views because reasons, Samsung removed OEM unlocking, Google has a stranglehold on decade old RCS with only google messages supporting such a protocol (wtf?????), AOSP is functionally dead, Gapps has been eating the left side of your homepage for years, etc etc.
I'm thinking about getting some handheld and making it into a PDA, like those upcoming DS-like consoles, and then maybe just get a pocket modem for phone/internet.
$25? lol no, my next phone fill be either Linux or a flip phone.
I have 2 cheap options I could recommend for Custom ROMS:
- Moto G 5G 2024 $140 runs Lineage OS (I have this)
- CMF Phone 1 $290 runs e/OS, has OLED display, overall a better phone than the cheap moto.
I'm not sure about "Linux" atm, there are still more apps for Custom Roms than you'd find for Linux that's optimized for mobile use.
i hope this shit gets hacked and cracked to allow the install of any apk so quickly.
guess i aint upgrading anymore. congrats google you made your own os less safe
😁
This won't stop anything
I still use a phone that hasn't received ota security or play security updates in 4 years.
Yet, they still installed - without notice or consent - safety core (to rescue me from naughty text messages) to scan my images.
Funny how they can rapeload apps onto my devices without my consent that work on 3 generations old hardware/os but they can't update the security and they want everyone else to register to be able to provide foss apps to people for free.
rapeload
c/brandnewsentence
guess i aint upgrading anymore.
Oh, no, this will be pushed to devices. Ever seen the "your device has new features"?
also remove com.wssyncmldm to forcibly prevent your phone from updating
CAREFUL: when you reset, android updates itself to the newest version.
Can't install apps offline on my own phone 🤯
Just when I thought that I cannot possibly hate Google even more, I see D. Veloper.
This is so fucking bad.
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this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
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