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F-Droid has warned that over the past few months, Google has pushed a malicious programme known as the Android Developer Verifier to as many as 4 billion Android devices (f-droid.org)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/degoogle@discuss.tchncs.de
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[–] 23 points 2 months ago

They're not wrong

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    [–] 20 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    This is a good time to remind people that if you install a custom ROM from https://xdaforums.com/ (that's where most instructions are at any rate), you can install a version of Android with no google services whatsoever, including no play store

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  • [–] 13 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    only if your device is rootable unfortunately

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Not necessarily. LineageOS doesn't require root; just a compatible device.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    It also requires the boot loader to be unlocked, which is the same requirement for rooting a phone. Thus, you can only install LineageOS if your phone is rootable.

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    • [–] 9 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Where is the motorola graphene OS phone? This would be a great day to launch.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

    afaik this will be for corporations only and not sold to consumers directly

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

    Oh, I hadn't heard that. Is that a common business model for phones?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago*

    i mean it has been a thing for sure, motorola builds the radio and wifi systems in cop cars for example. the phone part may be new but it seems to be of the idea "corporations may need privacy but consumers don't deserve it".

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    • [+] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago* (2 children)

    I just checked, since I run GrapheneOs, and had Google Play installed.

    I don't have Advanced Device Protection (or whatever).

    If course, I really never open Play Store anymore, anyway, and I don't let it run in the background.

    I went ahead and uninstallled it, just to be safe. Having anything published by Google on my devices just feels gross, now.

    Aurora store is better for obtaining Play store apps, anyway.

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  • [+] 1 point 2 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 child)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    but a privacy nerd my producer knows of basically said it was quite insecure and just recommended using the regular Play Store regardless.

    Interesting!

    It sounds to me like they fell for Google's ad campaign against alternate stores. (Google has been in court for locking out competing app stores, and launched a campaign in response to try to convince others not to trust alternative stores.)

    Aurora, has exactly the same set of packages as Play Store, but allows anonymous connections and provides substantially more end-user privacy information.

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    • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    Users deserve to know what's running on their devices.

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