Comment by 0xEF
21 days ago
Agreed. The store are unnecessary and sold under the guise of "protecting" the user, when it's really about controlling user use, keeping them ignorant and spying on them.
Google does not care if your data is leaked by an app offered by some nebulously defined verified developer that phones home without reason, or that you develop a problem with online gambling or predatory micro transactions, etc. Blows my mind that we have come this far in the fight for user rights, ownership and accountability and still the majority is going to just trust Google because they're Google. No corporation is your friend. Let the users operate the device they paid for* as they see fit, learning to accept the responsibility for for all the success and failures that come with it and we will suddenly start seeing much, much smarter users.
Mostly it's about milking app sales with the app store fees. Apple for instance get's about 15-20% of it's gross profit from app store fees. For Google it has been estimated that play store fees make up about 13% of their Google services profit.
I think initiatives like this are a form of "marketing" to show that "hey, app stores are important because we protect the users. We shouldn't be regulated away."