cross-posted from: https://jlai.lu/post/24787719
Starting next year, Google will begin to verify the identities of developers distributing their apps on Android devices, not just those who distribute via the Play Store.
It seems Google has been tightening control over Android in recent years and this looks like the next major step. Most people probably won’t care and the only realistic option for users who value software freedom and privacy is to wait until Linux or another free and open-source OS becomes a viable alternative. Overall a disappointing turn of events for the mobile computing space
mobile computing space
I’m starting to feel like the Mobile Computing space died somewhere around when the Subnotebooks and the PDAs died and we’ve been living illusions ever since.
It’s the Mobile Appliance™ space now.FairPhone with /e/OS by default is the EU answer by the e-Foundation
They’re closing in on alternative ROMs with their fucking shitty device integrity checks, I’m afraid it’s only getting worse. I literally had to switch back to stock Android because none of the e-government apps of the country I live in NOR two out of my three banks work on /e/. Literally impossible to participate in society unless I sell my soul to Google, sadly.
I really hope we’re able to fight back and win the war.
That’s sad, and so backwards…
If they really wanted to make sure the data on the phone is safe, the integrity checks should be about making sure the phone is built from FOSS with available source code, that can be publicly audited and even the banks themselves could check it for security… which should actually rule Google services out, not the other way around!
Only available to people who can afford nearly an iPhone x3
Well, it’s not a cheap phone, but it’s a phone for the rest of your life, it’s full modular, that means, you can fix and change everything by yourself any component of the phone, no need to pay money to an technic workshop. Apart it offers also sys specs which fits the price.
All this still does not matter if you cannot afford it. It is as simple as that.
Well, even if you can’t afford the price for an FairPhone, you can use /e/OS or also LinageOS in your Phone instead of Android, they are free and full based on the Android code, so all your apps will work in these without problems, but without Google breathing in your neck, dictating which app you can use and which not. You can also use some Linux distros made for Mobile, like Ubuntu Mobile and others, but these are not so compatible with Android apps, despite that Android is also an modified Linux, so it’s better to use the mencioned de-googled forks.
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Apparently they’re doing it to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act. But they’re doing it in the USA too.
Custom ROM usage is gonna explode
Probably why Google is also taking steps to make custom ROM development significantly more difficult. They evidently want to kill off all Android ecosystems except the ones they control and watch.
setting up walled garden using security excuse. What’s the next excuse?
It’s always the same nonsense. “Safety”, “security”, “privacy”, etc.
They won’t ever say for ma profits
Won’t somebody please think of the children!
We all know the reason.
My personal favorite is how they are doing it to prevent data theft and malware. All they have ever done is trick people out of data. All of their shitty apps that I can not remove from my Samsung phone ARE the malware I do not want. Fuck Google and every person that works there!
My blood glucose monitor is not on the play store. So one dy next year I’ll wake up and no longer be able to get that data…?
Sorry, your survival is incompatible with this version of Android.
You are probably half-joking, but… yeah.
I fucking hate this timeline. Actually, scratch that, that is way to placid and abstract.
I hate the assholes in charge. Fuck all of them. Luigi did nothing wrong.
Yeah sorry, I feel you. Things like these make me really cynical.
Fühl ich, Bruder.
WHAT. THE. SHIT. ಠ_ಠ
This is reality.
Indeed.
Wish we lived in a world where open source was funded even at a single percentage of what this oligopoly pulls in each year. We’d have a viable alternative to the duopoly by now.
The world is ruled by force and not by justice which does not exist, so soon we will most likely live in a dystopia.
Baby steps: I wish it was mandated that any software receiving even a penny in public funding must be open source down to the last byte.
Let Google know what you think about this: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfN3UQeNspQsZCO2ITkdzMxv81rJDEGGjO-UIDDY28Rz_GEVA/viewform
Love it!
yup, they are closing in. i wonder why the surveillance wing of the fascist regime wants to control everyone’s digital life that more tightly.
you guys may have the power to protest this before it goes worldwide. i wonder if there will be real pushback.
I mean, some of us did when GrapheneOS and folks started to bootlick goolag for their walled garden in pro of security as well as the economical breach they did not cover (Pixels are not available to everynyan) and even incentivated.
Yet here we are again.
It is unlikely that there will be a real resistance, the majority will resign themselves like submissive cattle and only a few will try to fight to the end, I have already seen this in history.
one of those things that’s good in theory but i have no trust in google handling it.
It might just be time to kick that “smartphone” addiction and just use burner phones.
Maps and encrypted messengers.
Aside from Signal messenger, I feel like I could go back to having a casio watch, some sort of GPS in my vehicle, and a dumb phone. My phone is ancient and hasn’t gotten a security update in years, I was thinking of going Graphene next but maybe the solution is to just dump it and go full 1990s again.
Fuck off. This is my last android phone
What would you get instead? I think if Google actually follows through with this, I’ll switch to LineageOS, which is still Android. Obviously, iOS is much worse on this front.
Honestly, I don’t know. I’ll find something. Let the recommendations begin!
There’s no alternative that won’t have major limitations. I predict it’ll just be more like going back to the days of jailbreaking to install unsigned apps. Unfortunately AOSP is already pretty much unusable without Google services installed for the vast majority of apps.
I’ll thank you to not rain and piss facts on my moody parade. Just leave an irrationally cranky old man his delusions. Lol
A phone that isn’t smart, probably
I’ve already gone to an analog pocket watch. Might as well go that route
Is sad that PinePhone are inaccesible in a lot of places. They dont send where I live because they use DHL (shitty service which charges 34 euros to send from the capital city to where I live because is “remote area” despite is the city in the airport and is nearer than the capital city) and the pricing was 1.5 times the price of the product so they cancelled the option (as well as they dont know the different custom that may exist in special zones in the same country).
This is why you use a proxy service. Also more secure against interdiction attacks.
Those proxy services usually do not target custom stores (Banango and Guanxe Prime).
Also, it leaves you unprotected if something is bad with the goods, as the return parcel ticket targets the initial destination.
ProxySto.re
Anonshop.appYou definitely can buy from custom stores. Just send them the URL and the Monero.
They dont send to my place :3
The second one has the same problems I mentioned in a post before and in the service to send anywhere, 600 USD is prohibitive.
The provided (Pine64) could just use a different shipping company for those cases, such as Seur which is more reilable and fair than DHL. Yet they hold themselves in that.
So I guess my next phone will be a Chinese phone. Even if it spies on me, I’ll have the freedom to install whatever I want from anywhere.
The Chinese have a golden window of opportunity. Let’s hope they don’t mess this up.
