Google to block logins on old Android devices starting September | Hacker News Reader

Google to block logins on old Android devices starting September

bleepingcomputer.com

18 pointsel_duderino8 comments

You won't be able to remove your account from the device? Why?

And no factory resets? How can you securely wipe it?

The article doesn't seem to suggest either of those being true. Just that if you perform a reset or remove your account you will not be able to login afterwards.

This article notes that it is only for Android Gingerbread and lower. Gingerbread launched in December 2010 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Gingerbread), so this would be 11 years past that date. It seems reasonable to block logins from such old OS if for security reasons. The article notes you can still access various Google-owned websites via a browser, so this is just for the phone's login and apps.

Did you actually read the article?

You won't even be able to factory reset or even remove your account from an old Gingerbread device. Sounds like a huge security flaw right there.

>you will start receiving username or password errors and will no longer be able to:

>Sign in to Google products and services like Gmail, YouTube, and Maps

>Add or create a new Google Account Perform a factory reset and try to sign in

>Change your Google Account password, which signs you out on all devices, and try to sign in again

>Remove your account from the device and try to re-add it

Yea the factory reset bit stood out as a problem. The rest don't seem like a big issue to me though.

I still have a Gingerbread era android phone. It works just fine. It's one of the few phones I own I was actually able to successfully root. It's still full of a bunch of stuff, the currently installed apps work fine.

But now, google has decided for me, I shall no longer ever be able to factory reset this phone or even remove my google account from it, for my own good.

I'm really getting sick and tired of this catchall phrase 'security' being used as an excuse for consumer hostile practices and tactics.

It's bullshit, the people at google marketing know it's bullshit, the engineers know it's bullshit. It's bullshit.

Just pointing out the obvious: If you rooted your phone you can do whatever you want with it, including installing any OS you want.

I don't understand the outrage - perhaps this is just poorly worded, and they mean you can't sign in after resetting or signing out?

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