4 ms·
You are thinking about it from the point of view of an enthusiast/hacker who wants to put their homebrew stuff on it. But this is also tightening around develop
by rcxdude 6mo ago
You are thinking about it from the point of view of an enthusiast/hacker who wants to put their homebrew stuff on it. But this is also tightening around developers who may want to distribute their applications to lay users.
- selectively 6mo agoThose developers will pay $25 for identity verification and have no issues.
- rcxdude 6mo agoUnless they do something google doesn't like, or trip one of their many automated systems that ban them without recourse. Or they are compelled to revoke a key by a government.
- selectively 6mo agoRevocations are for apps being malware and nothing else, much like macOS Gatekeeper (Apple doesn't even revoke certs used by Warez groups to sign cracked apps). Automated bans can be an issue, but that's an edge case. Google already had the functionality to 'revoke' an app if ordered to do so by a legal authority. It is much more important to make a real world attack - something that is draining wallets of ordinary people across Thailand/Brazil/SEA in general - harder to achieve. One thing is a political goal of some people in the west, the other is an ordinary person not having the money to feed themselves because a scammer stole it all.
- rcxdude 6mo agoI can't trust Google will keep to that, sorry. Nor can I accept harms being twisted into a further centralised accumulation of power (especially when Google, with all their resources, could likely do much more to prevent these scams than grabbing that power for themselves)
- selectively 6mo agoWell, the very good news is that Google is not seeking your trust. You have no say at all. This is the new system, it benefits actual real people over HN commenters and you will just have to deal with it. Google doesn't have the ability to change the way banking apps work with regards to transferring money from one account to another in Malaysia/Brazil/Thailand. That would be a matter for the national Governments. This is the best approach available.
- rcxdude 6mo agoI'm aware I lack power here, but you seem to be trying to convince me it's a good thing.
- selectively 6mo ago[flagged]
- diydsp 6mo agoDrivers license leaks are surging.
- selectively 6mo agoGoogle's identity verification system relies on multiple factors, not solely drivers licensees or other national identity documents.
- nine_k 6mo agoLay users use Play Store. Users who use F-Droid are already not as lay. If you distribute stuff that Play Store would ban, your users are likely not as lay, too. Yes, it's inconvenient, but I see it as a good-faith attempt to limit exposure of lay users to scams, not some power grab.
- kube-system 6mo agoThere are exactly two groups of people who sideload APKs: * people who know what they're doing * people who are being victimized