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Android Developer Verification

android-developers.googleblog.com

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Re: Android Developer Verification

#221

Post by edarchis »

hansvm wrote: post #156
mrtksn wrote: post #35

The Android verification is such a broken experience. Recently I decided to purchase a dev account for my company, so far: 1) Provided my company DUNS number etc. once to create the payment profile. I did this some times ago, don’t remember the details but it was an involved verification process and it is marked as verified business payment profile. 2) Later on the payment step verified myself with a passport and ban…

That sounds a lot like my experience as an Apple Developer too, with the added bonus (unclear from your description if you experienced this too) that they took my money before the verification process was finished and wouldn't refund it once their AI couldn't connect my face to my ID and wouldn't let me connect with a real person (the first dozen times were on them, but after that it was maybe my fault for including…

Play the GDPR card, even if you're not from Europe. Find their DPO and state that you want to appeal the automated decision to a human.

Companies operating in Europe must provide a clear way to appeal automated decisions: https://www.edps.europa.eu/data-protection/our-work/publicat...

You might not have a way to actually file a complaint against them but quite often, their legal department will just have a quick look at your case and just give you what you want without bothering to tell you anything. Worth a shot.

Re: Android Developer Verification

#223

Post by sayamqazi »

izacus wrote: post #212
realusername wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you are proposing won't solve anything, the #1 source of malware on Android is Play Store ads, here I said it. And Google benefits financially from the problem.

You "saying it" doesn't make it true.

You "refusing to believe it" doesn't make it go away.

Re: Android Developer Verification

#224

Post by tvbusy »

glenstein wrote: post #65

Don't love it but (1) it's addressing a serious problem and I'm not sure what the alternative is and (2) if you all remember the starting place, it was staggeringly, dramatically worse, practically a death sentence for F-Droid and seemingly testing the waters for if they could simply power through and do it despite objection. This is a major course correction that doesn't kill F-Droid. A one time 24 hour hoop to jump…

Phone sellers should enforce a mandatory 30 days no use after purchasing to ensure that people are not harmed by phone usage.

Newspapers should only report news at a minimum 7 days after the fact to ensure accurate reporting.

Toasters should lock everything in until it's completely room temperature to avoid accidental burns.

These are serious problems.

Re: Android Developer Verification

#225

Post by tonyedgecombe »

binkHN wrote: post #110
ethagnawl wrote: post #12

What % of Android users actually want this? Do they know or care? I've been using Android since 2010 because it was open in ways that the Apple ecosystem wasn't. I do not want this and imagine hardly any other power users (for lack of a better term) do. I'm already using a mostly deGoogled device but this really seals the deal. I have been longing for a true Linux phone for years and now seems like a good time to get…

Android is becoming more Apple-ized everyday; it's horrible and more and more APIs get neutered or disappear, further limiting functionality available to developers.

It's worse than Apple because not only are they locking it down in the same way but the whole thing is funded by adverts.

Re: Android Developer Verification

#226

Post by fc417fc802 »

realusername wrote: post #201
fc417fc802 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why your observation was received poorly. It's true. If they actually wanted to fight bad actors they could (for example) introduce a voluntary verification program where an app cost $$$ per year to list, is permitted only a fixed number of updates per year, and the uploads are manually audited by an actual person. This would add a second tier to the app store. Just to drive the point home. Not that you woul…

What you are proposing won't solve anything, the #1 source of malware on Android is Play Store ads, here I said it. And Google benefits financially from the problem.

Financial incentives aside, a higher assurance tier on the app store would enable me to tell my relatives "all apps that handle money or government details will always have this mark next to them" among other things. Whereas the current situation has me actively investigating moving them over to graphene.

Re: Android Developer Verification

#228

Post by fc417fc802 »

mrtksn wrote: post #168
fc417fc802 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does a passport solve that? Most small private companies are entirely opaque. A government ID doesn't help you determine authorization. It won't even help you determine ownership since anyone doing things sensibly will be using a registered agent to hold the company on his behalf. The correct approach here (AFAIK) is to punt the trust decision to the bank by requiring payment with a method that you can confidentl…

My government ID card expired and I was too lazy to renew it but I had my passport at hand so why not? BTW both the id card and the passport have cryptographic authentication and you are able to open a bank account or use govt services completely online by scanning it with the phone Rfid . They could have make me scan that, scan my face and be done with the identity verification. My identity is already verified and t…

That all makes perfect sense but consider that if they simply punted to the bank as I described they would still get the same benefits only with even less complexity. The bank fundamentally has to do robust identity verification. Any party that needs to handle payments while also lacking a reason to be good at performing in house identify verification really ought to make use of the bank because you are highly unlikely to be better at it than they are.

The entire cumbersome process you describe can be viewed as Google doing a significantly worse job of verifying your identity than the bank would have.

As an aside, I suspect that leaving it to the bank would also provide additional legal protection. Specifically anyone attempting deception will most likely be forced to commit fraud against the bank which will probably be taken much more seriously than otherwise.

Re: Android Developer Verification

#229

Post by zoobab »

EmbarrassedHelp wrote: post #39
andrepd wrote: post #5

I don't see a way out of this except government regulation. The EU has the most motivation to do it, as a huge economic bloc with a lot of motivation right now to become as independent from the US as possible. I guess I can sort of manage to keep my head above water and keep buying secondhand phones which I unlock and install a supported version of LineageOS. But it's cumbersome, it gets more difficult and more restr…

I'm wondering if the EU is complicit in this somehow, despite claiming that they want to fight back against tech companies. The EU Commission is currently pushing the shitty EU Identity Wallet for mandatory age verification, and it requires GooglePlay Services to be installed for "anti-tampering". That also means a ban on non official versions of Android like LineageOS and GrapheneOS.

The DMA team replied to me that they did not see any legal issues with Google enforcing mandatory ID for sideloading apps.

We need an urgent upgrade of the DMA v2.O, in the fast paced Omnibus package.

Feel free to post proposals here.

Re: Android Developer Verification

#230

Post by hrmtst93837 »

EmbarrassedHelp wrote: post #39
andrepd wrote: post #5

I don't see a way out of this except government regulation. The EU has the most motivation to do it, as a huge economic bloc with a lot of motivation right now to become as independent from the US as possible. I guess I can sort of manage to keep my head above water and keep buying secondhand phones which I unlock and install a supported version of LineageOS. But it's cumbersome, it gets more difficult and more restr…

I'm wondering if the EU is complicit in this somehow, despite claiming that they want to fight back against tech companies. The EU Commission is currently pushing the shitty EU Identity Wallet for mandatory age verification, and it requires GooglePlay Services to be installed for "anti-tampering". That also means a ban on non official versions of Android like LineageOS and GrapheneOS.

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