Comment by mysteria
21 days ago
The article didn't say much about the account approval process, but from the looks of it Google will be able to arbitrarily accept and revoke applications as they see fit. So much for an open platform, bring forth the gatekeeping!
Personally I would be fine with unsigned apps requiring the user to click through a notice before install, or having a setting to toggle to enable unsigned apps. Windows does something similar to this where unsigned binaries get a pop up warning but signed ones are executed immediately.
What they say they want to accomplish could be almost 100% accomplished with self signed certificates. Or public certificates like letsencrypt etc. if you absolutely have to have third party attestation of the key.
The fact they incidentally position themselves as the only gatekeepers rather than accomplishing the same without doing that tells you all you need to know about their intent.
That notice already exists. In fact there are 2 or 3 extra confirmations required to sideload apps today.
That's the first step toward banning NSFW apps like on Steam, I'm afraid.