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Comment by tw04

1 month ago

I can say that my parents have never once complained about a scam on their phone caused by sideloading.

In fact I don’t know anyone among any of my friends or family that have ever had that issue.

Every last one of my non-technical friends and family have been hit by spyware on their windows devices.

To say I’m extremely skeptical that this has anything to do with protecting users is an understatement.

In fact I’m willing to go out on a limb and say it’s a nearly non-existent issue outside of people being targeted by nation states.

Would love to see some numbers backing up the claim that sideloading is resulting in mass exploiting of Android devices because I can’t find them.

Do your parents:

1. Live in a country where Android is much more popular than iOS?

2. Live in an environment where piracy is rampant?

3. Are used to sideloading apps to get free movies / soccer?

Yeah. My dad loves sideloaded Newpipe, and I haven't ever heard of him dealing with scams or viruses.