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microtonalyesterday at 8:17 AM4 repliesview on HN

Many alternative AOSP-based systems work fine today and do not have the new Android Developer Verifier (wow, already rolled out to 500M+ devices [1], though still dormant).

To be honest, it is quite scary that Google is able to remotely roll out an app like that to all GMS Android phones. Of course, we all knew that, but it highlights again that Google can remotely take away functionality that you had before, brick your phone, etc.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...


Replies

RobotToasteryesterday at 8:51 AM

We used to call programs like this, that allow someone to remotely break your system, a Trojan horse...

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classifiedyesterday at 1:47 PM

> brick your phone, etc.

Apple can do the same for iPhones. In terms of dark shit they can do there's no difference anymore.

ajrossyesterday at 3:36 PM

> To be honest, it is quite scary that Google is able to remotely roll out an app like that to all GMS Android phones.

Are any commercial mobile phone vendors not able to do such a thing? Do remember that this giant kerfuffle is all over the seeming preparation for the apparent removal of a developer feature that iPhones have never had at all.

izacusyesterday at 8:31 AM

Wait till you hear that your OEM can remotely rollout full OS updates with full access to all your data and drivers... carrying Google software and most of it Google code.

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