Google's plan to restrict sideloading on Android has a potential escape hatch for users

https://reddthat.com/post/49485312

Google's plan to restrict sideloading on Android has a potential escape hatch for users - Reddthat

Lemmy

I’m not sure why google is over engineering this, proper mainline distros have this solved since forever. Let the community setup trusted repos with gpg keys, then let me trust the repos. If Fdroid trusts the package and I trust Fdroid, who should care?
Probably because they want to target software that cracks theirs to avoid ads, like ReVanced.
Ding ding ding ding ding. It’s so obvious, it’s because Google wants to be in control and block apps it would rather not exist. Newpipe, FreeTube, Revanced and the like.

Then why aren’t they already doing that by blocking DuckDuckGo?

The DuckDuckGo app blocks all apps from sending to Google (and other advertisers) tracking/ad data on a system level. And it’s freely available on the Play Store (has been for years.

play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.duckduc…

If they wanted to prevent apps from blocking their ad abilities, this app would never have been allowed on the Play Store.

DuckDuckGo, Duck.ai (optional) - Apps on Google Play

⚡Actively protects your data. Private search, chat, browser, ad blocking, & VPN.

Antitrust lawsuits and plausible deniability
Thank you random lemming, didn’t know about duckduckgo-s tracker blocking capabilities, have it installed now.
If they blocked it now, people would just sideload it.

Does it actually block ads in apps?

Blokada blocks ads in apps and it was removed from the google store years ago. You have to sideload it in order to use it.

There’s a neutered version of the google store, but it doesn’t block ads effectively.

Because it was never actually about security to begin with. That’s obviously BS. Google just wants control.