Did we win? - Lemmy.zip

Lemmy

Making users wait 24 hours doesn’t improve security; it’s an anti-competitive change designed to make the Google Play store seem like less of a hassle in comparison.

I can actually see where it can improve security against scammers trying to scam elderly and non-tech savvy people.

  • Scammer tries to get someone to install malware from their site
  • Victim isn’t familiar with sideloading, but scammer instructs them
  • Victim hits the first time 24 hour block and has to restart and wait
  • The restart alone breaks contact with the scammer, scam thwarted

For the rest of us that know our way around Android, it’s just a one time annoyance, after completing all the steps to enable sideloading, you won’t have to wait 24 hours anymore.

I’d believe that if most Pig Butchering scams weren’t using apps from Google Play already.

Fair enough, you have a point. Although, I do think the developer verification thing will make it easier for Google to weed out bad actor developers altogether.

Sure there’s no perfect solution, but at least they’re trying to make it a lot more difficult for the scammers out there, while still leaving power users a path to keep using Android the way we want.

I think it is absolutely delusional to assume any of this actually has anything to do with security or safety of users. Google just wants more power and control over, well, everything they can get.