RE: https://mastodon.social/@campuscodi/116263819407575175

That's right folks, it is now easier to buy a firearm than to load open source software on your phone in America.

@chetwisniewski

It's a *one-time* delay when you seek to turn off the protection that stops the user from side-loading apps.

To be honest, given how many security-blind people use Android now, I can live with this.

Time was when Android users were all "power users", like Linux users used to be. Those days are long gone.

A bigger issue is Google closing Android off from side-loading apps at all.

@PeterLG this makes no sense and will protect no one. I'm just going to be angry the next day when I either gain access to what I need or proceed to shoot myself in the foot, but angrily.

@chetwisniewski

You've never had to deal with an upset great-grandfather who is confused about why his bank account has been drained, just to find out a helpful bloke rang up to configure his Samsung phone to get "free messaging" the week before, have you?

You flip the switch when you first set up your phone, and it never bothers you again. Big deal.

Google closing off side-loading completely is a much bigger issue.

@PeterLG @chetwisniewski

And this will be their first step towards closing off "side-loading" entirely, do not give them the benefit of the doubt. They want to steal our right to install the software of our choosing on the device that we bought and paid for, but before they can do that they introduced this "advanced-flow" to prevent the normalization and prevalence of 3rd party app distributers like @fdroidorg

There is malware on Google play store, it was never about safety.