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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

#691

Post by eipi10_hn »

_cenw wrote: post #560
userbinator wrote: post #553

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or it is that Google is locking down the ecosystem for some nefarious purpose (they're evidently not). Most of the comments here seem to agree that they are. Some people have clearly been so brainwashed that they can't figure it out.

Yeah, that must be it. Everyone who doesn't agree with my simple world view is brainwashed. On the website that's 50% LLM glazing now. Yeah I think I'm out of here.

Feel free. This is not airport. You Google apologists deserve brainwashed title.

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

#692

Post by MrDresden »

egeres wrote: post #500
armadyl wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GrapheneOS phones are still an option, it’s unaffected by these rules.

They have terrible support for banking apps and any app that needs play integrity

You are badly informed.

GrapheneOS has full support for Play Integrity[0].

[0]: https://grapheneos.org/articles/attestation-compatibility-gu...

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

#693

Post by riedel »

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…

This is clearly anticompetitive. Hope regulators will figure out, then we won't have it eg not in the EU. However, Google is also abusing their power to e.g. deinstall apps without any option to decide using 'play protect' and blocks whole alternative stores through 'safe browsing' flags. I posted this play protect incident about IzzyOnDroid a few days ago, because I was so outraged: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47409344

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

#695

Post by steve_woody »

wswin wrote: post #387
tavavex wrote: post #271

The part in the flow where you select between allowing app installs for 7 days or forever is a glimpse into the future. That toggle shows the thought process that's going on at Google. I can bet that a few versions down the line, the "Not recommended" option of allowing installs indefinitely will become so not recommended that they'll remove it outright. Then shrink the 7 day window to 3 days or less. Or only give us…

what's your solution to combat scammers?

Don't install crap on your phone

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

#696

Post by still_grokking »

deaux wrote: post #655
matheusmoreira wrote: post #572

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Merely regulating them isn't enough. The world needs to start enforcing antitrust laws. If we don't break up all these big tech companies, our future will be a technofeudalist cyberpunk dystopia.

We haven't broken up all these big tech companies, and we are living in a technofeudalist cyberpunk dystopia.

That escalated quickly.

I think that's actually true. But what does it mean, what's the way forward?

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

#698

Post by pred_ »

stavros wrote: post #537
tavavex wrote: post #271

The part in the flow where you select between allowing app installs for 7 days or forever is a glimpse into the future. That toggle shows the thought process that's going on at Google. I can bet that a few versions down the line, the "Not recommended" option of allowing installs indefinitely will become so not recommended that they'll remove it outright. Then shrink the 7 day window to 3 days or less. Or only give us…

I hope the EU cracks down on them like they did with Apple.

Has the Apple situation really improved?

I'm probably out of the loop, but last I checked, to put an app somewhere that's not the official App Store, they required you to pay their hefty fee for putting it in the App Store (even if you weren't going to do that), _and_ an additional Core Technology Fee.

(And if that's still accurate, one thing I don't get is how that isn't also anti-competitive.)

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

#699

Post by iamcalledrob »

> Restart your phone and reauthenticate: This cuts off any remote access or active phone calls a scammer might be using to watch what you’re doing.

This is smart.

But putting my design hat on here: couldn't this be the whole approach? When enabling the "unverified apps" setting, the phone could terminate all running apps and calls before walking the user through the process.

Why do you even need the rest of the complexity -- if the fear is that non-savvy users are being coached into installing malware,then preventing comms while fiddling with the settings seems pretty OK?

You could even combine this with randomised UI, labels etc. so it's not possible to coach someone in advance about what to press.

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

#700

Post by eipi10_hn »

Kwpolska wrote: post #309
torben-friis wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Having to wait a day for a one off isn't a big deal It's my phone. It's my software. Period. The general population is deterred by burying a setting deep. Waiting is a dark pattern and we're not idiots.

Scammers can coerce people into ignoring warnings if they convince them their entire life savings are on the line. It's hard to do if you need to wait 24 hours before the setting unlocks.

They will just call you the next days lmfao. There are countless news in my country that scammers hanging around on phone with the victims for some days before they do the deed. They are just switching from 1 long call to multiple reasonable calls because people naturally become more trusting the ones they talk more frequently and the scammers succeed more. That's exactly the words of a scammer when the police interrogating him at my place.
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