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Android Developer Verification: Threat masquerading as protection

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Re: Android Developer Verification: Threat masquerading as protection

#331

Post by seviu »

trinix912 wrote: post #291
seviu wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my best friend has a Jolla phone. He never had WhatsApp. He refuses to use google. Only till recently he started using signal. He has been using an old Nokia phone till he was forced to upgrade by his operator. He is European and here in Europe WhatsApp dominates. Despite all that and having a very social life, driven by work, he manages. I recently ordered a Jolla phone. I don’t want to know about android. I…

It's all good until your European bank starts requiring unrooted Android and iOS for their mobile banking app, then tries to force you to use that app instead of letting you sort things out at their building. Then the government starts requiring you use unrooted Android or iOS to sign into their website for administrative tasks, and so on.

If that ever happens (what am I saying we all know it’s happening). Then just a phone in the drawer I use it just for such administrative tasks.

Re: Android Developer Verification: Threat masquerading as protection

#332

Post by vintermann »

hparadiz wrote: post #301
Avicebron wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We need corporations and governments to stop locking down and gatekeeping vital software to closed ecosystems. If you can't get the government to do this for you in Norway the US has very little hope currently. We need some standard of minimal digital accessibility. Too much of our lives mediated by digital interactions with capricious systems.

The irony is none of this is a problem in the US. We still have a ton of banks that you can use without a smartphone. Even my bank's app works fine on a rooted Android or GrapheneOS. Europeans are doing this to themselves.

Competing to be best in class at US loyalty, more like it.

Re: Android Developer Verification: Threat masquerading as protection

#333

Post by StingyJelly »

hurfdurf wrote: post #281
StingyJelly wrote: post #118

We finally live in an age when I can tell a clanker that I want an app that does something that I need, connect the phone with adb and in half an hour have a working solution for my tiny problem while knowing little about android development. This is something google should embrace, not kneecap.

Installing via adb is not affected.

That's great but I want to be able to share such app with my family members coleagues

Re: Android Developer Verification: Threat masquerading as protection

#334

Post by krunck »

Would this also be a strategy to get all Android users to have a Google account? Once you are locked in to using Google's Play Store then can then require login to even install apps. I don't have a Google account. I never will. If I am required to get one to use my phone(Fairphone4, eOS) then I will cease using the phone. There is nothing in my life that requires me to have an Android phone.

Re: Android Developer Verification: Threat masquerading as protection

#335

Post by broken-kebab »

malfist wrote: post #321
pfortuny wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I did not know this and -despite its drawbacks, like not being able to install apps from the Apple App store- this seems like a great way to have a powerful dumb-phone.

Why do you need a powerful dumb phone?

One can read it aloud in sarcastic tone, and it will become clear then.

Re: Android Developer Verification: Threat masquerading as protection

#336

Post by imglorp »

llm_nerd wrote: post #277
devsda wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens if you "accidentally" become persona non grata with both Google and Apple? If you want to participate in the society, you will forever have to resort to shady tactics. Shady can be defined something as arbitrary as using GrapheneOS. A temporary workaround like using alternatives like GrapheneOS for those affected will only delay the inevitable but it doesn't stop it at all.

> What happens if you "accidentally" become persona non grata with both Google and Apple? https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/feb/18/international-cr... The US made a Canadian judge a persona non grata for any firm domiciled in the US. All because she works for the ICC, and the ICC declared Netanyahu a war criminal (which is indisputible). Why is the US destroying worldwide trust in US businesses on behalf of a revi…

That judge may be an outlier today, but we all know tomorrow they could sweep through all accounts and ban everyone that spoke against the regime. We have arrived.

Re: Android Developer Verification: Threat masquerading as protection

#337

Post by mapontosevenths »

saagarjha wrote: post #270
avaer wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The blast radius is far worse than any "malware" Google could protect you from. TFA is playing it up, but it is arguable that this is a real virus, except the shady hackers are Google.

Malware on Android causes more harm, both to individuals and collectively to all Android users, than Google locking people out of their accounts. These aren't even in the same order of magnitude. There are countless examples of people who have lost their life savings, all their data, etc. Losing access to your Google account sucks too, and I don't necessarily agree with what Google is doing here, but you're completel…

If it makes my phone, that I paid for, do things I dont want it to do then it's malware.Especially because those things make the device less useful to me.

Google thinks they own my phone. They do not. I do not consent to this change, and will be voting against it by using the only remaining option: Moving completely out of their ecosystem.

They really left me no other choice when they decided that they didn't need the owners consent.

Re: Android Developer Verification: Threat masquerading as protection

#338

Post by trinix912 »

seviu wrote: post #331
trinix912 wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all good until your European bank starts requiring unrooted Android and iOS for their mobile banking app, then tries to force you to use that app instead of letting you sort things out at their building. Then the government starts requiring you use unrooted Android or iOS to sign into their website for administrative tasks, and so on.

If that ever happens (what am I saying we all know it’s happening). Then just a phone in the drawer I use it just for such administrative tasks.

Right, until you have to use a mobile app to pay for parking or validate your bus/train ticket and so on. Yeah, "I can use my physical card", for now. Long-term we need a better solution than keeping an extra up-to-date phone.

Re: Android Developer Verification: Threat masquerading as protection

#339

Post by Arnt »

LtWorf wrote: post #316
Arnt wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they care now because of pressure from the governments of the countries involved. And perhaps because ten and twenty years ago, the sums stolen were small. Now they're in the billions.

How do you explain that all the scammers I've entertained used apps that are already on the store?

I think there's a misunderstanding here.

The attack in question doesn't use apps on the store, or even any attempt to get them on the store. There are also other attacks, but the one that prompted this change uses social engineering to get people to tap the build number seven times, sideload something and get a keylogger that then picked up their banking details and used them. Several governments raised the issue, Google acted. (The actions are to slow down the tap-seven-times process, so it becomes harder for the scammers to keep their victims fooled until the keylogger is installed, and also to tweak the timings, so the scammers can't outrun the app-banning process.)

If you haven't had your bank account drained, the scammers you met were different ones. (And I'm sorry that you've been scammed.)

Re: Android Developer Verification: Threat masquerading as protection

#340

Post by scotty79 »

My iOS using friend told me that he can't even use the iOS software that he has written on his own phone. He can run the software but it expires in a week so he'd have to redeploy every few days to keep it running.

Is that right? Is that the future of Android as well?

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