Google’s Sideloading Crackdown: Why It’s a Threat to Everyone’s Privacy and Freedom
(the.unknown-universe.co.uk)
from TheIPW@lemmy.ml to privacy@lemmy.ml on 01 Apr 17:00
https://lemmy.ml/post/45321412
from TheIPW@lemmy.ml to privacy@lemmy.ml on 01 Apr 17:00
https://lemmy.ml/post/45321412
Google is tightening control over Android under the guise of ‘security,’ but this crackdown on sideloading is a direct hit to digital sovereignty and FOSS. I’ve written about why this matters for our privacy and the future of open platforms. What do you think—is this the end of Android’s ‘open’ era?
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We might want to encourage people to stop using the term “sideloading” and instead say “installing” because that’s what it is; using a different term for it makes it seem unordinary and unintended.
That is a fair point. ‘Sideloading’ is definitely a corporate term designed to make basic ownership of our devices feel like a ‘workaround’ rather than a right. I used it here because it’s the language Google is currently using to justify their crackdown, but you’re absolutely right—it’s just installing software. We shouldn’t let them control the vocabulary of our digital freedom.
You’re apparently taking an LLM controlling your vocabulary just fine, though, given both this comment and post were transparently written by one.
What?
Not related to the LLM thing: “I don’t use social media, as it conflicts with my FOSS and privacy principles.” but then linking a Mastodon account on the website, having a “Share this post” bar with Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, and Bluesky, and posting this here is chef’s kiss.
Oh, my bad. I thought you were talking about the above the 2 comments and not just the poster. Thanks for the info!
Fair play, you’ve done a proper deep dive there. I’ll hold my hands up—I’m a sysadmin, not a journalist. I use tools to help structure my thoughts because my natural writing style is about as readable as a kernel panic. As for the ‘social media’ bit, the share buttons are a default plugin I haven’t stripped out yet, and Mastodon is the only place I actually hang out because it’s federated. I’m just a guy in a home lab trying to share some tech stories; sorry if the ‘robotic’ prose put you off
Robotic would sound better than raw slop imo
You’re allowed to be human. Better to clarify what you mean to other real humans than waste huge amounts of electricity and water and create unnecessary pollution by filtering your humanity with a shitty LLM.
I get it. I spend more time in the CLI than writing, so I’ve been using tools to help structure my posts. Clearly, that ‘polished’ look just comes across as robotic slop here. I’ll stick to the raw technical details from now on. Thanks for the feedback.
If a single company has this level of control over our devices we’ve already lost.
Can you imagine a company like dell decided tomorrow to only allow installation from their specific vendor locked market? People would just not buy those products, you wouldn’t be demanding dell let you install linux, you just buy something else.
Even if i had to use a pc that’s 10+ years old, id choose that over using a new pc that can only run vendor approved software. I cant imagine anything a new devive like a phone might have that would change my mind about it.
TBH this possibility does scare me. That we could lose this freedom too on PC.
Today already, most PC come with Microsoft’s secure boot keys in firmware. Microsoft signs the install keys for many Linux distros. It isn’t totally locked down, b/c you can turn this off in UEFI. But most of the pieces exist. Frog and pot…
The PC platform is “open”, oh yes… but when Microsoft says jump, PC mfgs ask how high. We could somday see pressure to lock down all computing, not just mobile. To protect the children, you know…
I think you’re right to be scared, the only thing stopping a corp like microsoft from doing it already is the threat of facing legal sanctions, which is more of an inconvenience then a threat to a corp like microsoft.
Reality tells us people don’t care. For one Apple Iphones, and most people use their phone way more then their computers.
Well, what about M series macs and SDM laptops, which are deliberately designed to be hard to reverse-engieneer.
So Android is open source, right?
What is to stop the community from just making and releasing their own android version, and be done with it?
it’s got an open source base layer; but it’s got enough closed source layers on top of it to make the open source part alone useless for today’s mobile environment.
nevertheless, the things like graphene, lineage, postmarket, etc. are efforts to make that base layer effective and they will soon be your only options if you want to use android without having to provide your gov’t issue ID so that your actions can be tracked for “terrorism”
Yes, Android is open source. But the thing is, Google’s clampdown on sideloading isn’t just about the OS code itself. It’s really about controlling the whole app ecosystem and making it harder for people to install apps outside of Google’s own channels.
Sure, folks can fork Android and make their own versions — that’s been happening for years with projects like LineageOS. But the tricky part is keeping all the apps working smoothly without Google’s proprietary stuff like Play Services. Without that, a lot of apps just don’t behave right, and the user experience takes a hit.
So basically, just having Android’s code open isn’t enough to keep it truly open and easy to use. The real control is in the ecosystem around it, and that’s what Google’s tightening grip is all about.
Read GPL v3 and why it was introduced in the first place. Code being open source won’t do much.