Google plans to begin verifying the identity of all developers who distribute apps on Android, even if it's outside the Play Store, starting September 2026
(android-developers.googleblog.com)
from Pro@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world on 26 Aug 07:44
https://programming.dev/post/36341073
from Pro@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world on 26 Aug 07:44
https://programming.dev/post/36341073
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36316138
Comments
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They’re afraid of more ICE trackers
Remember, it’s important that technology and advancement only be used by capital, never by the underclass.
Yeah, imagine a world where plebs had control over and ownership of the devices they use… (shudders)
I’m sure the newpipe devs are going to coincidentally not be allowed to be verified… Oops no YouTube viewer… Ughhh…
Fixed that…remove YouTube!
and how do you explain that to your family? you got off youtube, but they won’t be happy.
Cold Turkey. Screw Google!
As a backup I have installed YouTube as a PWA (added to home screen) from Fennec and installed uBlock, YouTube HD and Sponsorblock. It’s good I even get recommendations but not as straightforward as NewPipe
.
Lovely, thank you for this. I've left my feedback, and I hope many, many other people do as well.
That is my hope as well.
All he said was removed by mod? What are you thanking him for?
it was a form from Google soliciting feedback on the thing.
Removed by mod
Your comment was removed by a mod, fyi.
modlog: photon.lemmy.world/modlog?user=1015020
the mod who removed it L3s refers to rule 2, which is totally irrelevant on comments, and in any case it does not apply here:
@xcjs@programming.dev mwybe you want to know
OK, this sounds problematic. I don’t see any obvious language for opting out and it doesn’t seem there’s intent to opt out. There’s probably going to be a dev option to allow it but that would probably still make installing from sources like F-Droid impractical.
there is already a dev option that users need to enable to use fdroid and such, and google wants to change that now. I doubt that they will just add a 2nd dev option, because that wouldn’t change anything.
It’s not a dev option at the moment. It’s a permission setting and it doesn’t require enabling developer options.
oh, right, my bad. I so rarely go to that menu that I forgot it.
Yup, makes sense. You do it in the beginning and then you forget about it. Until you change a phone. 😊
If you want to opt out, use alternative ROMs.
Their ‘verified’ app store already has tons of fake malware apps being distributed on it, maybe they should clean up their act first.
Whatever the hell I do outside the playstore is none of Googles business and though this too is handwaved away by claiming improved security, we all know this has fuck all to do with security.
This is just again Google being a monopoly and wanting to stay that way by pushing out other developers
I guarantee you that newpipe devs will not be able to get verified, and now Google can block yet another app
Fuck. google. (Also apple and gicrosoft
If you want improved security, use GrapheneOS.
You know that not everyone can shell out 400 Euros on a phone, right?
Graphene should be able to run on anything they can run android though? Not sure what you mean
What? Graphene OS only runs on Google Pixel devices.
Even ROMs with wider hardware support like Lineage OS only run on expensive devices too (Or very old discontinued ones that you can’t find anywhere and have no firmware or kernel updates).
Run? Probably. Work flawlessly? Questionable. It needs to be built (as with every OS update) for every specific device. The developers only do builds for pixel devices (faq). You can take the source and build it for your device. I have no idea how you’d even begin to do that or what that would entail, but most probably, you’d to be able to add drivers for things like fingerprint sensors or cameras unless you are ok with losing access to some functionalities.
My understanding is that phones are hard to support with one “do all” operating system. Thats why all manufacturers take AOSP and modify it with their own code - specific to each device and make builds for each. A bit different mentality to what we do on PCs, where one build of an operating system will just work everywhere.
Buy on sale and used. That’s on par with chinese hardware.
Tried, but at least in Europe the only cheap pixels I could find were old unsupported ones where the batteries where probably either dead or dying.
Paid 335 eur for Pixel 7a new last December on Amazon Germany. Not cheap, but GOS was worth it.
Then make sure your next device is capable of running linear joes without Google Play services before you purchase it.
These days I do not make a phone purchase without making sure it will run lineage OS first.
I did my research before buying my current phone, but turned out all phones that could run lineage OS were too expensive, not a single affordable phone was supported. (With the exception of really super old discontinued models that are too slow to even open a webpage and battery past it’s useful life)
When I purchased my device in 2023, I purchased the OnePlus Nord N200 5G, which was released in 2021, brand new in the box, because it supported Lineage OS, and I’m still using it today.
It’s because I only charge my phone between 30 and 80%. It still has less than 400 charge cycles on the battery. And so I’m basically using a 4-year-old device as a 2-year-old device and it still works fine with lineage OS.
I also paid $300 for it brand new in the box.
Unfortunately $300 is still the double if what I’m willing to pay for a phone, I paid 150 for my spyware phone, and while I hate the lack of privacy and freedom such device provides, it does everything I need it to do with the apps from f-droid. I just don’t use it for anything that requires secrecy.
I guess I will just stop updating when the new “feature” rolls out and see what happens.
Yeah, I’m not sure just how low of a device you can get and get Lineage OS on it. I know that I generally don’t pay less than about 300 for devices because otherwise they get too slow for my use case.
I definitely don’t need a $700 device or above, but 300 to about 400 is my sweet spot.
I’m praying that there’s a toggle like for play protect
I don’t want an iOS clone
and what happens for trans ppl who live in areas that make it impossible to get a matching id google? fuck off with this "we're protecting you" bullshit
Good thing I use custom ROMs.
This isn’t about you.
Also this kind of liberal argument of, ‘The gestapo cannot catch me because I bought skates!’ is stupid and tiring.
It is precisely about me and a small group of technical users who care about freedom. The rest of the users, that’s strictly their own problem. If the gestapo outlaws skates and I can’t get them on the black market and the society is fine with concentration camps that’s also allright. I’m too old to care.
Is there any explanation why this will be effective? Like, “if we find a malware app, we will do this and that to the author’s personal data, and it will help you in that way” etc.
What personal data? They will invalidate this dev’s cert and ban him from getting a new one.
Should that help people who were unfortunate to install that malware before the dev is banned? Also how exactly do they hope to identify the dev as already banned if he tries to register again?
It doesn’t say but it would make sense to check the certs periodically and not just on install.
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.curiana.net/pictrs/image/9aa9da2c-db4c-4114-a633-bdef1fc9d8e7.png">
Yeah, how would they verify that uploaded documents are real?
How online banks like Revolut do it? How crypto exchanges do it? How Google’s age verification does it? I guess they will do the same.
Don’t know about age verification, but revolut and crypto likely require manual review. I can’t imagine google relying on the same process and assuming it will help to deter malicious actors.
Without play service this won’t get enforced right? Or will graphine os be affected? Its an monopoly power play anyways.
Now, any device without Google Play Services will be totally unaffected. Any device with Google Play Services will be fucked.
I regret buying a Pixel.
GrapheneOS