Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Android developer verification: Early access starts

android-developers.googleblog.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

421–430 of 694 posts

Re: Android developer verification: Early access starts

#421

Post by fingerlocks »

sebastiennight wrote: post #383
fingerlocks wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah. I know of several startups that had nothing but anonymous telemetry and they blocked all Europe because there was no capacity for compliance. I was at an incubator at the time and the decision was unanimous across a dozen or so companies. It’s not like anyone was going to lose out on VC money from that market

> anonymous telemetry is not covered by GDPR. And it's a bit hard to believe that these several startups functioned without ever collecting names, emails, IP, phone number, or address of any lead or customer ever.

Maybe they did? Who knows? Never gonna find out because no one had time to look into it. It certainly wasn’t done with malicious intent, perhaps by accident or oversight, which is likely the situation in most small companies.

Re: Android developer verification: Early access starts

#422

Post by throawayonthe »

Grimblewald wrote: post #224
ryandrake wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's take the "W". This is pretty good news!

That's like accepting vaders 'altered' deal, and being grateful it hasn't been altered further. If google wants a walled garden, let it wall off it's own devices, but what right does it have to command other manufactures to bow down as well? At this stage we've got the choice of dictato-potato phone prime, or misc flavour of peasant. If you want walled garden, go use apple. The option is there. We don't need to bring…

i mean, this program is specifically for google verifed devices...

Re: Android developer verification: Early access starts

#423

Post by arnaudsm »

poulpy123 wrote: post #410

I don't understand the title, it's exactly the reverse, they will force verification for sideloading, even if they say they would have lighter requirements for hobby apps with low install number

@dang this post title was editorialized against the rules, and is highly misleading. Should we revert it ?

Re: Android developer verification: Early access starts

#424

Post by Lapel2742 »

rom1v wrote: post #342

I want to be able to install apps from alternative app stores like F-Droid and receive automatic updates, without requiring Google's authorization for app publication. Manually installing an app via adb must, of course, be permitted. But that is not sufficient. > Keeping users safe on Android is our top priority. Google's mandatory verification is not about security, but about control (they want to forbid apps like R…

> > Keeping users safe on Android is our top priority.

Somebody tell them that I do not want to be kept safe by Big Brother.

Re: Android developer verification: Early access starts

#425

Post by nandomrumber »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #204
miki123211 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if the problem is indeed malware getting access to personal data, then the very obvious solution is to ensure that such personal data is not accessible by apps Then you'd have the other "screaming minority" on HN show up, the "antitrust all the things" folks.

The "let's actually enforce antitrust laws" people are in the majority: https://today.yougov.com/economy/articles/47798-most-america... https://www.antitrustinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/1...

Your first link shows a graph that indicates more than 50% of Americans believe there is at least some competition, or a lot of competition; and that less than 1/3rd believe there is not enough, or no, competition in every sector of the economy that would be relevant to this discussion.

And that most Americans believe that bigger companies tend to have lower prices than smaller ones.

It’s not particularly clear then that there should be a lot of motivation to change things.

Re: Android developer verification: Early access starts

#426

Post by curtisnewton »

rom1v wrote: post #342

I want to be able to install apps from alternative app stores like F-Droid and receive automatic updates, without requiring Google's authorization for app publication. Manually installing an app via adb must, of course, be permitted. But that is not sufficient. > Keeping users safe on Android is our top priority. Google's mandatory verification is not about security, but about control (they want to forbid apps like R…

> without requiring Google's authorization for app publication.

funnily enough, I am installing google drive for computers right now (macOS), I had to download a .pkg and basically sideload the app, which is not published on the Apple Store

Why the double standard, dear Google?

Re: Android developer verification: Early access starts

#427

Post by uyzstvqs »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #419
lopis wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If an app updates to require new permissions, or to suddenly require network access, or the owner contact details change, Google Play should ideally stop that during the update review process and let the users know. But that wouldn't be good for business.

>...or to suddenly require network access... That's the most baffling thing to me. There is simply no option to remove network permissions from any app on my Pixel phone. It's one of the reasons why I avoid using mobile apps whenever I can.

It's weird because GrapheneOS does have this. Networking is a permission on Android, but stock Android doesn't give you the setting.

Re: Android developer verification: Early access starts

#428

Post by GuB-42 »

leoedin wrote: post #364
rom1v wrote: post #342

I want to be able to install apps from alternative app stores like F-Droid and receive automatic updates, without requiring Google's authorization for app publication. Manually installing an app via adb must, of course, be permitted. But that is not sufficient. > Keeping users safe on Android is our top priority. Google's mandatory verification is not about security, but about control (they want to forbid apps like R…

I don't really see how you can both allow developers to update their apps automatically (which is widely promoted as being good security practice) and also defend against good developers turning bad. How does Google know if someone has sold off their app? In most cases, F-Droid couldn't know either. A developer transferring their accounts and private keys to someone else is not easily detected.

The point here is that app developers have to identify themselves. Google has no intention to verify the content of sideloaded apps, just that it is signed by a real person, for accountability.

They don't know if the person who signed the app is the developer, but should the app happen to be a scam and there is a police investigation, that is the person who will have to answer questions, like "who did you transfer these private keys to?".

This, according to Google and possibly regulators in countries where this will be implemented, will help combat a certain type of scam.

It shouldn't be a problem for YouTube Vanced, at least in the proposed form. The authors, who are already idendified just need to sign their APK. AFAIK, what they are doing is not illegal or they would have been shut down long ago. It may be a problem for others though, and particularly F-Droid, because F-Droid recompiles apps, they can't reasonably be signed by the original author.

The F-Droid situation can resolve itself if F-Droid is allowed to sign the apps it publishes, and in fact, doing that is an improvement in security as it can be a guarantee that the APK you got is indeed the one compiled by F-Droid from publicly available source code.

Re: Android developer verification: Early access starts

#429

Post by a96 »

Lammy wrote: post #202
Ms-J wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Debian already is sideloaded on the graciousness of Microsoft's UEFI bootloader keys. Without that key, you could not install anything else than MS Windows." This is only true if you use Secure boot. It is already not needed and insecure so should be turned off. Then any OS can be installed.

I agree with you and run with it disabled myself, but some anti-cheat software will block you if you do this. Battlefield 6 and Valorant both require it.

This is the real malware that people should be protected from.

Re: Android developer verification: Early access starts

#430

Post by tom1337 »

curtisnewton wrote: post #426
rom1v wrote: post #342

I want to be able to install apps from alternative app stores like F-Droid and receive automatic updates, without requiring Google's authorization for app publication. Manually installing an app via adb must, of course, be permitted. But that is not sufficient. > Keeping users safe on Android is our top priority. Google's mandatory verification is not about security, but about control (they want to forbid apps like R…

> without requiring Google's authorization for app publication. funnily enough, I am installing google drive for computers right now (macOS), I had to download a .pkg and basically sideload the app, which is not published on the Apple Store Why the double standard, dear Google?

Probably because they require APIs which cannot be used when publishing to the AppStore. The whole Microsoft Office Suite is available in the macOS App Store - but Microsoft Teams must be downloaded from their website and cannot be installed via the AppStore...
Post reply on HN