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There is a desktop client for Play store called Racoon. When I used my phone for several years without a Google account, from time to time I would need some app

by xorcist 11y ago

There is a desktop client for Play store called Racoon. When I used my phone for several years without a Google account, from time to time I would need some app (for taxes, bankning, public transport, whatever) that was distributed via the Play Store exclusively, but I had no problem downloading that APK using Racoon and installing it separately. You don't get notified of updates, and updating is a manual process, but for for a single user that wants to avoid the Google services it's workable.

smt88 11y ago
> You don't get notified of updates, and updating is a manual process That's a lot of extra work, but it's also a huge security problem. Is it really worth the extra privacy? After all, you can't really hide yourself from Google because they index the entire web and public databases and your friends' emails...
- rsync 11y ago
  "That's a lot of extra work, but it's also a huge security problem." What is the security problem ? Simply missing updates that might fix vulns ? Genuinely curious...
  - smt88 11y ago
    > Simply missing updates that might fix vulns Yes. A huge amount of hacking is only possible because software is out of date.
- xorcist 11y ago
  That's the question. I think it depends on why you didn't want to install the Google Services in the first place. I mostly didn't want the remote wipe and remote code execution privileges the Google Services come with. It wasn't primarily a question of privacy as such. I doubt the security problems are huge. Most userland apps run as a dedicated user. Security problems with the Google Services are potentially much more serious.
  - smt88 11y ago
    > I doubt the security problems are huge. Most userland apps run as a dedicated user. There are tons of security holes that aren't prevented by running under separate users. I remember examples where sensitive data was being stored in the clear, where other apps could get to it.

by xorcist 11y ago

smt88 11y ago

> You don't get notified of updates, and updating is a manual process That's a lot of extra work, but it's also a huge security problem. Is it really worth the extra privacy? After all, you can't really hide yourself from Google because they index the entire web and public databases and your friends' emails...

rsync 11y ago
"That's a lot of extra work, but it's also a huge security problem." What is the security problem ? Simply missing updates that might fix vulns ? Genuinely curious...
- smt88 11y ago
  > Simply missing updates that might fix vulns Yes. A huge amount of hacking is only possible because software is out of date.
xorcist 11y ago
That's the question. I think it depends on why you didn't want to install the Google Services in the first place. I mostly didn't want the remote wipe and remote code execution privileges the Google Services come with. It wasn't primarily a question of privacy as such. I doubt the security problems are huge. Most userland apps run as a dedicated user. Security problems with the Google Services are potentially much more serious.
- smt88 11y ago
  > I doubt the security problems are huge. Most userland apps run as a dedicated user. There are tons of security holes that aren't prevented by running under separate users. I remember examples where sensitive data was being stored in the clear, where other apps could get to it.