The only reason I've put up with android for as long as I have is that I've had full freedom to run my own code and install my own applications.'nGoogle wants to end that.

[ajroach42@retro.social]

The only reason I've put up with android for as long as I have is that I've had full freedom to run my own code and install my own applications.

Google wants to end that. That's the end of android for me.

https://hackaday.com/2025/10/06/google-confirms-non-adb-apk-installs-will-require-developer-registration/

[ajroach42@retro.social]

When you couple this with the recent change in the EU outlawing unlocking bootloaders, the DMCA in the US making any kind of digital tinkering illegal if Washington says so, and the various Chat Control and other "For the Children" legislation ...

We're shuffling full steam ahead into a surveillance machine the likes of which are unprecedented.

[ajroach42@retro.social]

I'm in kind of a charmed position in that I have no need for an Android or Apple device.

There are a few ways that *life* is trying to conspire to make me keep one in spite of that, but most of them are things I can currently route around.

But I'm no longer in an oncall rotation. I no longer use Okta. I can do 2FA a dozen ways that don't mandate google.

I'm not normal.

[datarama@hachyderm.io]

@ajroach42 I live in Denmark. It is very hard to get by in daily life without an Android or Apple device. I tried, for many years, until my current employer gave me a work phone (which runs Android).

There is an ubiquitous payment app that has largely replaced cash. It won't run on anything but an Apple or Android device.

If you use public transit (which I do), you can currently use a plastic card with readers mounted in buses, trains and stations. But this will be phased out next year and replaced with an app that only runs on Apple or Android devices. You will effectively no longer be able to use public transit unless you own an Apple or Android device.

There is a national authentication system (used by banks, public authorities, etc.) which *can* currently be used with a little token you can have in your pocket (one which displays numbers, and one which reads them aloud, for blind citizens) ... but you can't set it up without using an Apple or Android device. There have been talks about phasing out the code tokens entirely, so the only option to authenticate yourself with public authorities requires owning an Apple or Android device.

And all of this won't run on eg. a Fairphone with elementaryOS, because all the Android versions use Google's "authenticity verification" features, effectively locking out anything not fully controlled by Google.

It feels like living in a kind of digital vassal state fully colonized by two foreign tech giants.

[ajroach42@retro.social]

@datarama Thankfully, we don't have most of that here, yet.

But I fully expect it's coming.

[datarama@hachyderm.io]

@ajroach42 It is my impression that Americans tend to be a lot less trusting about this sort of thing than Danes.

This is both good (Americans are less likely to put up with replacing cash with a surveillance-friendly and tech-dependent alternative) and bad (Americans are less likely to trust eg. health authorities delivering vaccines for infectious diseases).