True but this option is completely provisioned by Google server side. At any point they could say
“Due to recently passed legislation, we can no longer offer advanced flow as this method now bypasses established federal laws regarding Age Verification. Identity verification will be required moving forward for unsigned apps.”
I mean, if we’re talking theoreticals, they could turn off the ability to install any apps outside of the Play Store if they decided to. They could even turn off the ability to install any apps at all, from any source.
There’s no reason to believe that any of those things are going to happen, though, nor is there any reason to believe that the theoretical you posed is going to happen.
It’s not moving in what I would call my preferred direction, no. At the same time, I understand the kinds of pressure that Google are under from various governments - likely why this is being rolled out in specific countries to start with - and the need to introduce some amount of friction to shut down the kind of attacks where the victim is being persuaded to install an app from an external source, which are completely eliminated under the new scheme.
Am I necessarily happy with it? No. Are the methods around it sufficiently flexible that I will be able to live with it? Yes. I have no trouble installing anything through adb, and the first thing I will do after the change rolls out is to disable it, meaning that after 24 hours, I am essentially back to the current state of affairs.
True but this option is completely provisioned by Google server side. At any point they could say
“Due to recently passed legislation, we can no longer offer advanced flow as this method now bypasses established federal laws regarding Age Verification. Identity verification will be required moving forward for unsigned apps.”
I mean, if we’re talking theoreticals, they could turn off the ability to install any apps outside of the Play Store if they decided to. They could even turn off the ability to install any apps at all, from any source.
There’s no reason to believe that any of those things are going to happen, though, nor is there any reason to believe that the theoretical you posed is going to happen.
Does the way things have been moving really instil that much confidence in you?
It’s not moving in what I would call my preferred direction, no. At the same time, I understand the kinds of pressure that Google are under from various governments - likely why this is being rolled out in specific countries to start with - and the need to introduce some amount of friction to shut down the kind of attacks where the victim is being persuaded to install an app from an external source, which are completely eliminated under the new scheme.
Am I necessarily happy with it? No. Are the methods around it sufficiently flexible that I will be able to live with it? Yes. I have no trouble installing anything through adb, and the first thing I will do after the change rolls out is to disable it, meaning that after 24 hours, I am essentially back to the current state of affairs.
Poor google so much pressure from the governments.