Comment by econ
13 hours ago
I thought the same thing but he apparently has a point. The stated purpose covers only a tiny sliver of the capabilities. The agreement points to the TOS where it (last time I looked) says service may be terminated at any time without stating a reason. Nothing guarantees it won't be used for things other than security. And finally he has a point where it also doesn't really do much for security.
If we ask their fine search engine, the AI helpfully explains malware to be software designed to gain unauthorized access to disrupt, extort payments and/or hijack devices.
If you still think the shoe doesn't fit, imagine what would happen if one managed to create an app with the same capabilities. Google would remove it immediately for being malware. Obvious malware.
I'd usually say it'd be far fetched
but I can totally see Google banning developers and removing their apps for political reasons, where some lobbying group bombs them with emails
because with this they're explicitly saying they're now choosing who gets to be in or out, there's no way for them to say we can't do anything about it
I do think this would improve security, but I also think it's sort of a Trojan horse to lock down the ecosystem
> several Russian mobile apps related to the Russian internet company VK were deleted from the U.S. tech giant's App Store.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kremlin-demands-explana...
Banning it from the app store is different from banning from distributing their app on any surface. It's closer to Walmart choosing to not carry a product vs the government saying no one may carry that product. Of course both can happen for political reasons but generally the latter is a bigger hammer applied less often.
Isn’t Google going to do what Apple has been doing since forever? Or is Google somehow doing something worse?
I bought an android instead of an apple because I didn't want the kind of malware apple has always shipped with idevices
Apple's policies were established when you purchased the phone. Apps come through registered developers and their vetting.
Google has changed the game on something you already own. I'm sure their lawyers have done their homework, but in some jurisdictions this is certainly actionable.
They already lost a lawsuit and were fined a hundred billion dollars in the EU for locking down Android. Maybe they think since they already lost once, they can't lose again.
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No, you're still allowed to install whatever apps you want, whether they're verified or not, from the system app stores or not. What developer verification brings is the ability to install apps outside the system app stores without a warning, as required by the antitrust judgment against Google.
People here are complaining about a separate thing, which is that the process for installing an app outside a blessed way is changing, becoming harder for the first such installation and easier for subsequent installations on new devices.
nothing guarantees the Microsoft/Apple/Ubuntu/RedHat will not push an update through their infrastructure to delete some software from your computer
all OSes have malware level capabilities. it's literally the definition of an OS
> Ubuntu/RedHat
That still wouldn't affect projects like Debian or Arch, but going even further, they can't push through updates anyway. Nothing forces me to install updates, it's an active choice to do so.