Talk about this with your family and friends. It is the most important tech issue we are facing today.
"With developer verification in the form of sending in a scan of your government ID now mandatory, along with providing your contact information."
palata · 2h ago
> It is the most important tech issue we are facing today.
How so? I cannot anonymously get a bank account, I cannot anonymously get a phone number, I cannot anonymously get a domain name. I don't see how terrible it is to have to be verified to distribute your app.
Noting that if you worry about banned apps like NewPipe, then first I don't know that Google will prevent its sideloading, and anyway NewPipe is open source so you can build and install it yourself.
wosined · 1h ago
> I cannot anonymously get a bank account, I cannot anonymously get a phone number, I cannot anonymously get a domain name. I don't see how terrible it is to have to be verified to distribute your app.
All of those are a privacy nightmare as well. Now we add another. The total amount of freedom has diminished.
I genuinely don't really get it. If someone tells me "here is an app I wrote, it is not open source, I won't tell you who I am and you need to sideload it", I most definitely won't install it. Who would do that?
If it is open source, then I can build and install it myself. If the developer gets verified, then I can sideload it.
I totally agree that device manufacturers should be forced by law to make it possible to run an alternative OS like GrapheneOS, but this topic gets virtually no attention. Whereas everybody seems very pissed about the sideloading story.
stop50 · 2h ago
Then Apple and google will start a campaign to kill it within a second.
palata · 2h ago
Not sure what your point is. Are you saying that Google should be forced by law to allow unverified developers on their own OS, but that it would not be possible to have a law making it mandatory to allow alternative OSes?
I mean if they are above the law, they are above the law. No need to discuss anything. If they are not, then we can discuss what's best for the users. And it is my opinion that allowing alternative OSes is better for the users than allowing sideloading of unverified apps.
"With developer verification in the form of sending in a scan of your government ID now mandatory, along with providing your contact information."
How so? I cannot anonymously get a bank account, I cannot anonymously get a phone number, I cannot anonymously get a domain name. I don't see how terrible it is to have to be verified to distribute your app.
Noting that if you worry about banned apps like NewPipe, then first I don't know that Google will prevent its sideloading, and anyway NewPipe is open source so you can build and install it yourself.
All of those are a privacy nightmare as well. Now we add another. The total amount of freedom has diminished.
2300 comments' worth of discussion from last week
If it is open source, then I can build and install it myself. If the developer gets verified, then I can sideload it.
I totally agree that device manufacturers should be forced by law to make it possible to run an alternative OS like GrapheneOS, but this topic gets virtually no attention. Whereas everybody seems very pissed about the sideloading story.
I mean if they are above the law, they are above the law. No need to discuss anything. If they are not, then we can discuss what's best for the users. And it is my opinion that allowing alternative OSes is better for the users than allowing sideloading of unverified apps.