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Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

arstechnica.com

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Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#281

Post by GeekyBear »

grishka wrote: post #87

At this point I'm convinced that there's something deeply wrong with how our society treats technology. Ruining Android for everyone to try to maybe help some rather technologically-hopeless groups of people is the wrong solution. It's unsustainable in the long run. Also, the last thing this world needs right now is even more centralization of power. Especially around yet another US company. People who are unwilling…

> People who are unwilling to figure out the risks just should not use smartphones and the internet

People who aren't technically sophisticated should choose the smartphone ecosystem that was designed to offer the safety of a walled garden from the start.

Google sold Android as the ecosystem that gave users the freedom to do anything they like, including shooting themselves in the foot.

Google should not be allowed to fraudulently go back on their promise now that they have driven the other open ecosystems out of the marketplace.

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#282

Post by ForHackernews »

Retr0id wrote: post #163
hbn wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ADB installs are not impacted by the waiting period, so that is an option if you need to install certain unregistered applications immediately. Someone is just going to make a nice GUI application for sideloading apks with a single drag-and-drop, so if your idea is that ADB is a way to ensure only "users who know what they're doing" are gonna sideload, you've done nothing. This is all security theatre.

The scammers don't even need to make a GUI, they just need to get you to enable adb-over-tcp and bridge that to their network somehow - an ssh client app would do the trick.

How many people do you suspect are gullible enough to fall for these scammers but also competent enough to install an SSH client and enable port-forwarding for an ADB proxy? Like fifteen people worldwide?

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#283

Post by monocasa »

VladVladikoff wrote: post #276
grishka wrote: post #87

At this point I'm convinced that there's something deeply wrong with how our society treats technology. Ruining Android for everyone to try to maybe help some rather technologically-hopeless groups of people is the wrong solution. It's unsustainable in the long run. Also, the last thing this world needs right now is even more centralization of power. Especially around yet another US company. People who are unwilling…

>Ruining Android for everyone Are they really though? does the average person really care about side loading? I think we are in an echo chamber. I can't picture any of the people in my life installing things from outside of an app store on their phone. However I realize that's purely anecdotal, it would be nice to see actual statistics on this to have a more informed decision.

When I point out that Apple listened to the Chinese government and removed apps that protestors were using to communicate during the Hong Kong protests, they seem to get it.

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#285

Post by tadfisher »

ninininino wrote: post #74
xnx wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> some apps (e.g., banking apps) will refuse to operate and such when developer mode is on JFC. Why would an app be allowed to know this? Just another datapoint for fingerprinting.

Because estimates suggest Americans lose about $119 billion annually to financial scams, which is a not insignificant fraction of our entire military budget, or more than 5% of annual social security expenditures.

Banks do these things to check security boxes, not to prevent scams.

In this case, they don't want users to reverse-engineer their app or look at logs that might inadvertently leak information about how to reverse-engineer their app. It is pointless, I know, but some security consultant has created a checkbox which must be checked at all costs.

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#286

Post by wasting_time »

viktorcode wrote: post #259

Judging by the comments sideloading plays a major part in everyone's life. What apps do you sideload guys? Why those apps are not in a store?

I install from F-Droid when possible. It has less noise, and all apps are free as in software.

There are some true gems such as:

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#287

Post by otabdeveloper4 »

VladVladikoff wrote: post #276
grishka wrote: post #87

At this point I'm convinced that there's something deeply wrong with how our society treats technology. Ruining Android for everyone to try to maybe help some rather technologically-hopeless groups of people is the wrong solution. It's unsustainable in the long run. Also, the last thing this world needs right now is even more centralization of power. Especially around yet another US company. People who are unwilling…

>Ruining Android for everyone Are they really though? does the average person really care about side loading? I think we are in an echo chamber. I can't picture any of the people in my life installing things from outside of an app store on their phone. However I realize that's purely anecdotal, it would be nice to see actual statistics on this to have a more informed decision.

This "sideloading" thing is mostly to enforce US sanctions against countries like China, Russia and Iran.

So yes, hundreds of millions of people care about this.

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#288

Post by Klonoar »

gkoberger wrote: post #221
grishka wrote: post #87

At this point I'm convinced that there's something deeply wrong with how our society treats technology. Ruining Android for everyone to try to maybe help some rather technologically-hopeless groups of people is the wrong solution. It's unsustainable in the long run. Also, the last thing this world needs right now is even more centralization of power. Especially around yet another US company. People who are unwilling…

I “get” technology so I understand how you got here. But this is the wrong take. I expect to go to a restaurant and not die from the food… and I want nothing to do with the inner workings of the kitchen. I just want to know any restaurant I go into will be safe. Society has made restaurants safe, either because of government pressure or it’s good for business. How is that not a fair ask for technology, too? We all ha…

The ask is fair but the distinction regarding one or two companies total being the arbiter of this is the issue.

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#290

Post by JeremyNT »

MishaalRahman wrote: post #40
astra1701 wrote: post #14

This is going to hurt legitimate sideloading way more than actually necessary to reduce scams: - Must enable developer mode -- some apps (e.g., banking apps) will refuse to operate and such when developer mode is on, and so if you depend on such apps, I guess you just can't sideload? - One-day (day!!!) waiting period to activate (one-time) -- the vast majority of people who need to sideload something will probably no…

>- Must enable developer mode -- some apps (e.g., banking apps) will refuse to operate and such when developer mode is on, and so if you depend on such apps, I guess you just can't sideload? Hi, I'm the community engagement manager @ Android. It's my understanding that you don't have to keep developer options enabled after you enable the advanced flow. Once you make the change on your device, it's enabled. If you tur…

So give me a way to completely disable this nonsense via ADB.

This is hot garbage. Eliminating third party app stores like F-Droid defeats the whole purpose many of us even bother running Android instead of locked down Apple stuff.

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