Becoming the very thing you already destroyed

A rewritten version of an article where I got a little emotional

This article probably got split into three, as I tried to talk about three things at once, and readability suffered.

→ The Fax

If you either scroll down sometimes or have a non-negligible memory, you may remember that I wrote about the Play Integrity changes a few…months(?)…ago?

If you have ever argued with an iOS user, you probably know that Android — mostly GMS’d Android — globally runs about 70% of the market, and I’d presume it’s in part popular due to its openness, which Google seems to be plugging, for good — or really, for bad — if there’s no backlash.

Google is restricting sideloading a lot, dare I call this iOS-level. In case you prefer reading at the source, it’s also written down on Android Developers, which may be less or more neutral about the subject, but probably more one-sided.

→ The Considerations

While being able to know exactly who’s distributing malware sounds cool, we need to remember that not everything sideloaded is malware. For example:

• AdAway, which isn’t on Google Play because Google wants ad revenue

• F-Droid, which can’t be on Google Play because it’s an app store…and because it’s kind of silly to download an app store that doesn’t track you over a platform that tracks you

• Various, really interesting root solutions, that Google will tolerate, as long as they’re not accessible to your average Joe:anne

• ::: aside Not a real bullet point but how many times did I link to Magisk yet? :::

• Projects with privacy conscious developers that don’t really want an ad company to know their driver’s license

• Termux, which violates W^X by design and thus can’t update the Google builds anymore.

• Hardened Fenix forks, which don’t distribute there because of privacy either

With this new policy, Google would know exactly who makes what applications, and can choose to censor any of these from most of Android, like they did to YouTube Vanced.

→ The Speculation

Even if Google says something along the lines of ‘You need to calm down everyone, turns out we’re not doing that, promise’ the precedent of we do what we want to your phone is still there.

Apple has this tight of a grip on the ecosystem, or used to, and look what they did to my boy Firefox! They forced him to WebKit. A KHTML-based Mozilla product, blasphemous!

And it’s not just internal pressure that could make Google do things. An oppressive government could force Google to do anything, and since Google is in it for the money, I don’t see them above bending to the will of dictators. Or maybe they are. They used to have a motto of ‘Don’t be Evil.’

→ The Brainwashing

Even if you may not use non-store apps, some people do. Maybe Google eventually pulls some private messengers in response to the recent EU Chat Control discussion. Maybe you use that messenger to stay connected with friends and family. Maybe you want to sideload it. Maybe Google banned it. Do you now wish to rely on Feta(formerly Makebook)?

Even if Google says they won’t release the data, they will still have it. It’s about data and control. It seems harmless today, but it’s a slippery slope. Do you want to let Google track more than they need to, to sell you more with ads?

I doubt it, let’s not ignore this.