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Apple Propaganda. There's extremely few reasons why a modern Android phone from Google or Samsung is less secure than an iPhone, against any attack vector that
by 827a 2y ago
Apple Propaganda.
There's extremely few reasons why a modern Android phone from Google or Samsung is less secure than an iPhone, against any attack vector that 99.sevennines% of people [1] would ever experience. The worst way I've ever seen the most tech-illiterate person ever mess up an Android phone is by installing some QR Code reader that took over as a home screen launcher so it could (nonmaliciously, but questionably) put its QR code reader as a home screen left of the app icons. It should be way harder for Play Store apps to do that, because this guy needed professional help (me) to figure out where his home screen layout went.
But that was it. That's the worst I've ever seen. Android's security is very good.
While not a security concern, I've had multiple iPhone users ask "what the heck is this screen to the right of my app icons" (referring to the App Library introduced ~2 years ago). One person thought they'd been hacked. Kind of a similar inconvenience vector as that QR code app.
[1] The 100-99.sevenines% of people who might actually find themselves the target of an attack vector that Apple's unique security can help mitigate are, for example, journalists or dissidents who find value in Advanced Data Protection and Apple's generally very good and healthy stance on cloud security and end-to-end encryption. This level of security should be available to everyone, on every cloud provider, even if it only directly advantages a small number of people, but Apple is the only one really doing this right now.
- nunez 2y agoReplacing a launcher can be pretty bad. This happened to people I know. Some innocent sounding app replaced their launcher and added a fake Gmail widget to their home screen. It prompted them to login and, well, you know the rest. This would never happen on iOS because you can't change the launcher.
- 827a 2y agoAgreed. Its my opinion that you should be able to replace the launcher on Android devices, but the Play Store should refuse to distribute apps that do this.
- nunez 2y agoI really like this. People that know what they're doing can go nuts and sideload apks all day long, which is still more flexibility than you'll ever get with Apple. People that barely know how to use their phone outside of a few key apps will never have to worry about this attack vector.