Comment by 1vuio0pswjnm7

"When contrasted with the commercial app stores - of which the Google Play store is the most prominent - the differences are stark: they are hotbeds of spyware and scams, blatantly promoting apps that prey on their users through attempts to monetize their attention and mine their intimate information through any means necessary, including trickery and dark patterns."

Silicon Valley's so-called "tech" companies, e.g., Alphabet's Google LLC, also "prey on users through attempts to monetize their attention and and mine their intimate information through any means necessary, including trickery and dark patterns."

There is ample evidence of this behavior from a long litany of litigation where Google unsuccessfully attempted, or did not attempt at all, to rebut the evidence

It seems that app developers producing "malware"^1 would be in direct competition with these Silicon Valley companies such as Google

1. What is "malware". It could be defined as software that works against the user's interests. If so defined, the definition could vary from user to user, depending on each user's particular interests. Certainly "malware" can vary in terms of possible criminality and severity. Not all "malware" is criminal in nature, nor does all "malware" pose the same level of threat

"Do you want a weather app that doesn't transmit your every movement to a shadowy data broker? Or a scheduling assistant that doesn't siphon your intimate details into an advertisement network?"

If using "Google Apps" that come pre-installed into Android, then one can be assured that Google is using them in its round-the-clock efforts to collect such information

Google, too, is an "app developer"". For some users, Google's surveillance and data collection may be in competition with other "malware"^2

2. Using the definition of "malware" above, i.e., "software acting against the interests of the user" as F-Droid puts it, we are assuming there are users who interested in avoiding surveillance and data collection

"While directly installing - or "sideloading"[^sideloading] - software can be construed as carrying some inherent risk, it is false to claim that centralized app stores are the only safe option for software distribution."

When evaluating Google's strategy to allegedly "protect users from malware", one could ask, "Is there another way to do it?" The answer of course is yes

"We do not believe that developer registration is motivated by security. We believe it is about consolidating power and tightening control over a formerly open ecosystem."

By identifying app developers and forcing them to pay fees (consideration), these developers are entering into legally enforceable contracts with Google. Consider that the app developer, as stated above, may be in competition with Google for user attention and data collection. With few exceptions, the relative bargaining power of the parties, app developer versus Google, is overwhelmingly one-sided

Like "YouTube creators", the app developer becomes essentially an unpaid independent contractor. Payment, if any, is not in return for the contractor's work (the software). And any payment comes from advertisers. Google is only an intermediary (middleman) that takes a cut

From a user perspective, where the user is interested in avoiding targeted surveillance, data collection and advertising, is the threat of "malware" from non-Google app developers greater than the threat of malware from app developer Google. Avoiding Google's surveillance and data collection is considerably more difficult than avoiding surveillance and data collection by non-Google app developers^3

By using open source apps from F-Droid a user can easily avoid surveillance and data collection by non-Google apps. Using an app from F-Droid such as NetGuard it is trivial to avoid unwanted remote connections, surveillance and data collection initiated by non-Google apps.

Arguably app developer Google poses the greatest threat in terms of surveillance and data collection. This is in part because app developer Google also controls the operating system, the DNS settings, endpoints used by apps, major websites that most users visit, in some cases the user's hardware, and so on