F-Droid and Google's Developer Registration Decree | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository
f-droid.org
For the past 15 years, F-Droidhas provided a safe and secure haven for Android users around the world tofind and install free and open source apps. When cont...

The future of this elegant and proven system was put in jeopardy last month, when Google unilaterally decreed that Android developers everywhere in the world are going to be required to register centrally with Google. In addition to demanding payment of a registration fee and agreement to their (non-negotiable and ever-changing) terms and conditions, Google will also require the uploading of personally identifying documents[^regid], including government ID, by the authors of the software, as well as enumerating all the unique “application identifiers” for every app that is to be distributed by the registered developer.

If it were to be put into effect, the developer registration decree will end the F-Droid project and other free/open-source app distribution sources as we know them today, and the world will be deprived of the safety and security of the catalog of thousands of apps that can be trusted and verified by any and all. F-Droid’s myriad users5 will be left adrift, with no means to install — or even update their existing installed — applications.

  • Eagle0110@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    1 day ago

    It doesn’t work like that for mainstream manufactures, the way Google does this, as they have declared so far, is making it a contractal obligation to keep this code in order for them to get Google’s GMS certificate, which Google requires for authorizing them to integrate Google’s suite into their phone’s ROM, including Play Store and Google Service Framework, which are all proprietary software which manufacturers are not legally allowed to distribute without Google’s authorization. And outside China it doesn’t look like most mainstream manufactures dare to sell an Android phone without Google’s Play Store, thanks to the wonderful collective of the Android users making fricking brilliant choices with their wallet over the decade, didn’t they?

    The only way out of this for a government agency to step in it seems because Google really does have the manufacturers cornered here.

    • quick_snail@feddit.nlEnglish
      110·
      1 day ago

      Why would you run the OS that comes with your hardware, anyway? Any business is going to do a wipe and OS reinstall as a required first step before issue. Phones should be no different.

      • dabster291@lemmy.zipEnglish
        8·
        22 hours ago

        Because the most popular choices for Android phones don’t even let you unlock the bootloader, let alone install a different OS (also custom rom support can be a tad spotty at times).