• haverholm@kbin.earth
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    1 day ago

    While a fully functional version is available on F-Droid, the Play Store edition is subject to Google’s imposed limitations.

    I think that’s the cause and solution rolled into one sentence right there. Use F-droid instead of Play Store.

    • Ulrich@feddit.org
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      1 day ago

      Unfortunately I think this is going to be an inevitable problem with any software repository. F-Droid just expects users to go to the repository and inspect the code if they have concerns, or to trust the developer. Google can verify their own code isn’t malicious. They can’t verify the code of potentially millions of apps submitted to the Play Store that will inevitably ask for access to your entire filesystem, if given the option. Because let’s face it, the majority of mobile apps these days are just spyware whose primary purpose is hoovering up as much data as humanly possible to sell to data brokers.

  • Lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    I try to avoid the play store at this point. I even switched Tasker from the Play store version to the standalone non-google APK from João himself (Patreon-exclusive; or you can email him for a license, it’s like $4).

    Any time I implement an open-source project that offers an Android app, I immediately search their github/gitlab or F-Droid. I don’t even try to look on the play store anymore. Too much tracking bullshit.

    • ikidd@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Order of installation:

      1. Fdroid

      2. Aurora

      3. Playstore… and if I get to this point, probably about 80% of the time I just don’t bother. If it needs Google Play Services, 100% no-install.

      • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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        16 hours ago

        Oof, there’s a reason you use an app store. Dont download shit direct from the internet. Thats how you get malware

        • AndrewZabar@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          Yes because it’s that simple. Every file online that’s not from some huge corporation is spyware. /s

          Some people are strange - we know what we’re doing, we know a site and whether they have a solid reputation, we have experience and can determine when we’re getting a safe file. Oh, and do you truly believe that the “official” sources don’t dole out spyware left & right? Don’t be this naive; It’s not as simple as you stated. That’s just the general carte blanche rule that experts tell ordinary users because if we didn’t, they would download crap from everywhere under the sun and load up on malware every day.

        • IngeniousRocks (They/She) @lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          16 hours ago

          Buddy, pal, my absolute friend.

          It’s not like I’m not vetting the source code. Are you out here installing from sources that don’t let you vett your source code?

          Enjoy your spyware I guess 🙄

      • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        F-droid is better as it is an actual app store with actual rules. You can still add external repos but ideally you should use main.

        • LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee
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          14 hours ago

          The F-droid app is complete garbage, also they don’t make it easy to install apps that are open source but don’t follow GPL. Obtainium is perfect, just point to git repository. Now all we need is a P2P source control service.

        • IngeniousRocks (They/She) @lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          24 hours ago

          Obtanium is not meant as a replacement for f-droid. While it can be used as an f-droid frontend, I primarily use it to install from git repos such that I can track their releases page for updates automatically when using apps like freetube which generally only work reliably if you’re on the nightly release.

  • Lucy :3@feddit.org
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    1 day ago

    That explains why some files don’t sync on my device … just more reasons to fully switch to Lineage/Linux

    Though, I’ve never seen any warning from Nextcloud that there might be an issue due to using the gplay version

      • Lucy :3@feddit.org
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        22 hours ago

        That’s my major critique point of Graphene - it’s nice and all, but directly or indirectly supporting Google is pretty contrary to my goal. And, ofc, I’d much rather have a fairphone. I’d wish they’d support Google’s special security features too.

        • kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          14 hours ago

          Special security features? Fairphone either doesn’t or improperly supports basic security features. They’re late on security patches, their implementation of verified boot is broken, and generally their security is worse than any other major phone brand.

            • kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              6 hours ago

              All of it, custom roms dont help at all. For example custom roms dont solve their broken implementation of verified boot or how they used public keys for verified boot. In addition custom roms rarely go out of their way to add security patches that the OEM hasnt added themselves. For example, GraphineOS relies on Google to publish security patches in a timely manner for them to keep GraphineOS secure. GraphineOS can trust Google because they have a proven track record of publishing open source security peatches in a timely manner while Fairphone has proven to be the exact opposite.

      • Lucy :3@feddit.org
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        1 day ago

        Jup, I just assumed that I had the F-Droid version. I just downloaded dev from there

    • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe
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      1 day ago

      The thing is, this change isn’t new, it’s been coming for a while.

      Though it’s weird, some apps still get full access, such as Resilio Sync, though other similar apps such as Nextcloud and Syncthing don’t.

      I recently setup a phone and when installing Resilio it asked for permissions to the entire SD card.

      Something fishy going on.