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Google have declared Droidscript is malware

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Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#291

Post by Jiejeing »

x86ARMsRace wrote: post #42
eplanit wrote: post #25

It's seriously time to re-embrace the idea of ownership and control of our devices, and reject Android and iOS altogether. Developing for those platforms has become worse and more restrictive over the years, and this kind of crap is now just everyday news. How good are Pinephones[1]? Are there better alternatives? [1] https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/

> Small numbers (1-3) of stuck or dead pixels are a characteristic of LCD screens. These are normal and should not be considered a defect. Their product line does not really inspire much faith. I can't say I've bought a device in the past 10 years which has dead pixels on the display. To me, this is a defect, given that I can pick up a device, overwrite Windows with Linux, and have a device without dead pixels.

This warning is present, albeit in much smaller print, on all devices with a screen that you buy. The unofficial apple policy appears to be "repair starting from 1 dead pixel on iphone, 3 on ipad". Samsung has a policy which depends on the screen type: 1 for normal LCD, 3 for Super AMOLED, 4 for WVGA-resolution LCD. Every single manufacturer has this kind of clause, you cannot fault pine64 for this.

Though of course as it is a much smaller venture, you can’t hound a sales rep until they accept to repair it nonetheless.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#292

Post by stickfigure »

munificent wrote: post #166
szopa wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work at Google, and a friend reached out to me for help – his company's app was in a similar situation, with similar communication from Google. This was a good friend from high school, so I pressed the issue using internal channels. The person handling it on Google's side was very assertive about them violating a policy, and after some back and forth I received a _vague hint_ about what was the supposed vio…

Caveat: I work at Google but know nothing about this area and my opinion here is entirely personal. > which would create an unsustainable situation at this scale. Financial sustainability may have something to do with it, but I suspect the larger issue is that providing too much detail essentially trains malware authors to route around the company's defenses. Imagine the Play Store as a castle which has both good tow…

That doesn't seem to be a problem in this case? Telling spammers they are blocked due to copyrighted images trains them not to upload copyrighted images. Win-win.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#293

Post by Vrondi »

arp242 wrote: post #82
eplanit wrote: post #25

It's seriously time to re-embrace the idea of ownership and control of our devices, and reject Android and iOS altogether. Developing for those platforms has become worse and more restrictive over the years, and this kind of crap is now just everyday news. How good are Pinephones[1]? Are there better alternatives? [1] https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/

The biggest problem with "alternative" platforms is just the lack of app support. I used to have a Nokia N9; great phone. But it didn't support WhatsApp and I was out on the loop on the WhatsApp chat all my other coworkers were in. Then there's things like banking apps, flight check-in apps, food ordering apps, dating apps, etc. etc. Can you do without those? Sure, of course. But if I want to order food where I live…

You can do the banking (from most banks) and food ordering from a web browser on your smartphone. No apps required. Grubhub, Uber Eats, Doordash, all those sorts of things. Most of them have a web version, and you can use that instead of an app most of the time. Just shake loose the Apple-induced app mentality that keeps you locked in.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#295

Post by [deleted] »

ehsankia wrote: post #237
kbelder wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my primary hacking tool for throwing little scripts together on Android. You can bring up an IDE in chrome on your PC and interactively execute it on your phone. I hope this gets fixed. I wouldn't really be surprised if EVERY scripting/programming app in the play store technically violates some play store rules, though.

> I hope this gets fixed. Define "fixed", it was removed from Play Store but anyone can still install from APK or F-Droid, right?

[deleted]

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#296

Post by Vrondi »

arp242 wrote: post #258
megous wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a "vendor lock-in" ecosystem that's worse than the Windows lock-in of yesteryear IMO. For regular companies, if they want to shoot themselves in the foot by not being on the web, they're welcome. It's not such a huge issue as it would be with government for example. Also "any chance of any form of adoption" is a bit overstatment. I still use a dumbphone, and if I migrated to pinephone, lack of the kind of apps…

"Not being on the web" doesn't seem like a huge footgun. There are probably more people with a mobile phone and no traditional computer than the other way around, especially if you go outside of the US and Europe. Revolut, Grab, Gojek, Tinder, WhatsApp, and many more are all successful that offer a mobile-first solution, with either no web/desktop client or just as a an additional client (usually with fewer features,…

If you're using Whatsapp, you've got zero interest in privacy anyhow, and so you're never going to consider these issues in the first place.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#297

Post by MadWombat »

blakesterz wrote: post #2

I had to go look to see what this was: "DroidScript is an easy to use, portable coding tool which simplifies mobile App development. It dramatically improves productivity by speeding up development by as much as 10x compared with using the standard development tools. It’s also an ideal tool for learning JavaScript, you can literally code anywhere with DroidScript, it’s not cloud based and doesn’t require an internet…

One of the specific features of DroidScript is that it is a remote IDE. That is, when you start DroidScript on your phone it will serve the IDE UI via HTTP and you can then connect it by using your phones IP address (DroidScript conveniently gives you a URL to use). Maybe that is the reason for Google's decision.

Also, according to DroidScript itself, Google accused them of ad fraud, so maybe there is something there.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#298

Post by kentonv »

szopa wrote: post #100
dtx1 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banning it first is fine. banning it first, then not giving a reply to the concerns they have is not. Even if they have reasonable believe or proof that droidscript is indeed malware, it looks like at least a chunk of their userbase uses it for legitimate usecases and the devs, who likely invested at least a few hundred hours of work in it, deserve at least some communication.

I used to work at Google, and a friend reached out to me for help – his company's app was in a similar situation, with similar communication from Google. This was a good friend from high school, so I pressed the issue using internal channels. The person handling it on Google's side was very assertive about them violating a policy, and after some back and forth I received a _vague hint_ about what was the supposed vio…

> However, it's a safe assumption that the vast majority of people Google support deals with are spammers. If Google gave a detailed explanation to all of them it would mean a ton of additional work – which would create an unsustainable situation at this scale.

You describe a situation where Google was going to put a whole company out of business -- probably ending your friend's job, as well as that of many other honest people -- rather than give them the information they needed to fix the problem. And you think this is reasonable, because it would be "a ton of additional work" for Google? We just have to accept people losing their livelihoods as collateral damage in the war on spammers?

Imagine if we applied the same logic to the government. If they think you committed a crime, they just toss you in jail and don't have to tell you why. They could catch a lot more criminals if they didn't have to waste time prosecuting them!

No, we need a Habeas Corpus for tech companies. If you are banned, you have to be told why. Make it a law. I don't care if it results in more spam.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#299

Post by kemonocode »

ajross wrote: post #14
blakesterz wrote: post #2

I had to go look to see what this was: "DroidScript is an easy to use, portable coding tool which simplifies mobile App development. It dramatically improves productivity by speeding up development by as much as 10x compared with using the standard development tools. It’s also an ideal tool for learning JavaScript, you can literally code anywhere with DroidScript, it’s not cloud based and doesn’t require an internet…

Time for one of these again. So... having read through their marketing material, this is an on-device tool that opens up what appears to be most of the Android application API to at least the user of the device, and potentially to any Droidscript applications they grab from other sources, and... maybe to other apps on the device? It's not clear from a quick read how extensive the runtime control is. So just right out…

Still seems strange to me they focused so hard on the ad fraud part of it, unless they had a sudden change of heart and needed an excuse to get Droidscript out of the Play Store. They could just as well simply have said that any app that allows for easy, arbitrary code execution is a security liability and won't be accepted on the Play Store, which does include a fair number of root-required tools that have been removed at some point before. I don't necessarily agree with it, but that'd be a pretty believeable justification.

My gut feeling says these devs aren't telling the whole story.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#300

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

blakesterz wrote: post #2

I had to go look to see what this was: "DroidScript is an easy to use, portable coding tool which simplifies mobile App development. It dramatically improves productivity by speeding up development by as much as 10x compared with using the standard development tools. It’s also an ideal tool for learning JavaScript, you can literally code anywhere with DroidScript, it’s not cloud based and doesn’t require an internet…

Sounds too good to be true. Is this open source and available on F-Droid. If not, it should be.
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