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Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

news.ycombinator.com

341–350 of 361 posts

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#341
post #20

I'm starting to see these restrictions as a deterrent for using the products in question. My GOS handset is slowly fizzling away into a dumbphone with Firefox, organic maps and k9. And you know what, I am starting like it.

The vast majority of Android apps work on GrapheneOS. App compatibility is not diminishing in any significant way. We've improved app compatibility faster than Play Integrity API adoption has happen, which this isn't. PayPal's app still works with our per-app secure spawning toggle disabled. It's a bug in their anti-tampering code.

Thanks for the reply. Your efforts are more than appreciated!

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the OP is just lying out of ignorance and rash judgement, and spreading calumny about PayPal. And PayPal has done nothing to their app to block GrapheneOS. And hundreds, thousands of participants on HN have been misled by another rogue "Tell HN". Good times.

They're not lying but rather likely didn't know about the per-app exploit protection compatibility mode. They narrowed it down to secure app spawning needing to be disabled. Now they know what to do when an app doesn't work on GrapheneOS. You can help by upvoting the update they posted with the solution: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49462575

They did actually and knowingly lie. Because I guarantee that they had no way to affirmatively know that PayPal themselves had done anything to their code. They didn't see no ChangeLog and they didn't see no Release Notes about it. They didn't read any news from the app developers. They jumped to conclusions about malice when it was actually incompetence and ignorance, much like their own.

They could've simply neutrally stated that: "PayPal crashes when I try and run it under GrapheneOS" and that would be a true statement without assigning blame or malice. But, not knowing PayPal was innocence, they chose to assign malice to them instead. That's a choice. That is rash judgement and calumny.

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#343

Can it still run in browser like it would on a regular pc?

Yes, but you might have to enable desktop mode on a mobile browser so it doesn't try force-spawning the app.

You can change the link handling in the app settings so it doesn't try to open it via the app. Or open the site in incognito window.

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like I have 10.10.0. They'll most likely remove support for older versions server-side at some point.

That's weird because I keep all my apps to the latest version and still that's the version Google serves to me as the latest. Must be a regional thing.

I think updates often use staggered roll-outs.

https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ...

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#345
post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...why would I give my phone number to random people to pay them? I'd rather use an email address or user name. And using phone numbers means making it easier for normal people which means uploading the whole address book to the bank... just no.

I'd rather give the bank account number to people that need to send money there. Why bother with email address?

With the number everyone can withdraw money (which is two clicks to cancel the transfer but still annoying).

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#346
post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather give the bank account number to people that need to send money there. Why bother with email address?

With the number everyone can withdraw money (which is two clicks to cancel the transfer but still annoying).

Source needed. AFAIK that would mean faking a direct debit mandate which would be a criminal offense.

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem here seems to be that the phone is detected as rooted, not specifically that it's running grapheneOS. But I agree that it's a big problem. That's how you end up in a situation where google has full control from hardware to final apps like on iphones. When devs assume that everybody is using the stock android with google services enabled.

How did we let "rooting" become some evil thing? It's normal to have root (or Administrator) on your devices. After all, they are yours . They don't belong to the device manufacturer. You should have full access to your own devices by default. Only recently did we somehow normalize the idea that the user should not be the ultimate decider over their own devices.

We've already progressed from "the user should not be" to "the user should never be". Perhaps we will even grow out of calling it "their own devices" eventually. If they can brick it remotely it kinda already isn't really yours?

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Splitting bills, where each pay a part in the restaurant, fine. Splitting bills where one pays and the other sends him money, not.

Who is making these rules up? Why do you think they apply universally?

God made them, as far as I know. Humanity lived in gift economies long before the invention of barter and trade.

These are etiquette rules, which have their benefits. Since nobody is forced to follow etiquette, they help you to learn things about people.

Generosity is one of the easiest life hacks to find out who is friendly towards you and who is not. If you buy them a drink and they won't buy you a drink back, that's a tiny cost for you to know what kind of fellow you're dealing with. If they buy you a drink and then asks you to transfer money to them, you also learn something about them. If people splitting bills want to sit and count to make sure that everybody pays exactly for what they had, then you learn something. And so on.

If you invite people for dinner a few times, you will learn something about that person whether you wanted to or not.

Re: Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS

#350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably just a generic error message for failing that Google Play Protect thingamajigger that attests provenance of the vendor OS from boot. Will be interesting to see whether the Motorola phones have this endorsement when they ship. Most devices would probably fail because they are rooted rather than because they are GrapheneOS. I wouldn't put it past a scammer talking grandma into rooting their phone.

It isn't due to the Play Integrity API. That shows a notification on GrapheneOS with a toggle for blocking it to work around it for services not enforcing providing a result. If that was the issue, the original poster would have known from the notification. The issue ended up being PayPal shipping incorrect anti-tampering code incompatible with secure spawning. The original poster figured that out and got it working…

Thank you for the clarification!
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