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Users are now getting Android's convoluted sideloading process, and everyone hates it (www.androidauthority.com)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/linuxphones@lemmy.ca
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[+] -27 points 1 month ago (7 children)

once you’ve waited 24 hours, you can choose to allow sideloading for seven days or indefinitely.

I know I'm going against the current here, but I don't think this is a bad change at all. It's a step to protect normies from themselves who, despite how inconceivable it is to fall for this kind of scam, are actually even dumber than that.

I do think it's reasonable to be worried about future changes that further restrict sideloading. It's often how these restrictions are slowly implemented. But where it's at now with this change in particular I'm cool with.

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  • [–] 28 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Normies keep falling for scams all the time. They fall for scam on windows, over the phone and in person. We generally try to come up with rules that protect normies without overly complicating lives for everyone else. Like I have to go to a bank personally to increase single transaction limit over certain amount but I don't have unlock some secret options and wait 24 hours every time I want to wire money to a new account.

    A warning saying "this app is not trusted, don't install it if someone else instructed you to do so" would be enough here. Advanced users should be able to disable this warning. That's it.

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  • [–] -2 points 1 month ago

    I don’t have unlock some secret options and wait 24 hours every time I want to wire money to a new account.

    A lot of services will do the verification step where it sends a few cents to and from a newly linked account which can take 1-3 business days. You only do it the one time. It's a small speed bump that prevents millions of dollars in fraud every year.

    To me this change to sideloading is a very similar speed bump. You do it the one time then set it to allow sideloading indefinitely. That's where it's at now.

    If they move to extend the delay or strip out the "indefinite" option then yeah, freak the fuck out and grab some pitchforks because that's not good at all. But where this specific change is at I see it as more anti-fraud than anti-consumer.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago

    Ugh. You're not wrong, but I wouldn't say you're really "right" here either.

    Scammers will find a way around this. They always do. But it puts a significant, real burden on people that own their devices and want to things perfectly within legal and social norms. In a legal sense, it "limits enjoyment of one's own property." Which is the same kind of term used for when the stink from a pig farm makes it impossible to go outside. The pork lobby doesn't make the decision to keep the farm, a local judge does because it's about the individual not allowed to use their property how they like.

    This limits my enjoyment of my property, and doesn't actually solve any real problems. It's an excuse to lock down the OS for closed commercial use.

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