No.
Preventing people from doing something "for their own good" is never the right solution. Instead, we should strive to educate people on proper online safety measures so that they don't fall victim to fraudulent attempts.
I’ve seen even the most educated tech savvy people fall for these frauds. So I would say “educating people” is insufficient.
Another problem is because the law works extremely slowly, by the time any legal action can be taken to take down the destination bank accounts the fraudsters have already gained and taken the money.
Sideloading is the thing that works because the legal infrastructure simply can’t keep up with the fraudsters.
I would be inclined to agree with you if I know that the legal system immediately stops fraudsters and returns the money to the people without damange. We’re far from that.
https://www.osha.gov/etools/machine-guarding/presses/two-han...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockout%E2%80%93tagout
> educate people on proper online safety measures so that they don't fall victim to fraudulent attempts.
This is so inefficient and prone to failure. You think you're an expert, but my mom is not an expert. I don't want to educate my mom, I want to just hand her something that's safe to use.
It's close to impossible, that my mum figures out how to install an untrusted apk on her Samsung s22.
I guess what I want to say is: Having good security should not prevent you from installing custom software if you want to.
The side-loading debate is an indirect reference and to talk about side loading it must first be decomposed.
Question 1 is should Apple be able to prevent an engineer from running software they want on their phone? Probably not.
Question 2 is should Apple be able to prevent a layman from running software they want on their phone with effort? Debatable.
Question 3 is should Apple be able to prevent a layman from running software they want on their phone easily? I think so.
Question 4 is should Apple be able to prevent an alternative app store? Yes. Definitely.
So should side loading be allowed depends greatly on which question a person is asking and what the "sideloading" reference is pointing to.
Should I be able to choose what medicines I want to take without a pharmacist/MD? I have a hard time with this because I think I should be able to ingest whatever I want and I think I am more intelligent than the average person, on the flip side, I think if I were a pharmacist, I would say absolutely not. If you asked me if anyone should be able to take any medication they want without blessing, I look at the ivermectin debacle and realize "probably not."
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockout%E2%80%93tagout
Not sure what those links are supposed to show, but having safeguards and completely disallowing something is a different matter.
If all, you're just proving parent's point.
Lockout/tagout is a technical prevention which restricts other people from messing with a system that could endanger you. Education was not enough.
A monopoly app store is a technical prevention that restricts someone from running un-vetted software that could potentially steal your life savings or compromise your entire digital life. Do you think education is enough?
I am not saying that that is true or correct, but I do think that's an argument that someone who disagrees would have to take in good faith and respond to satisfactorily.
That's what "Are you sure you want to enable sideloading?" toggle is.
> Lockout/tagout is a technical prevention which restricts other people from messing with a system that could endanger you. Education was not enough.
That's what OS is.
> A monopoly app store is a technical prevention that restricts someone from running un-vetted software that could potentially steal your life savings or compromise your entire digital life. Do you think education is enough?
A monopoly app store is a technical prevention that restricts someone from running un-vetted software that could potentially prevent monopoly app store revenue or god-forbid bypass DRM. So what?
And App Store absolutely does have malware https://lifehacker.com/great-now-the-apple-app-store-has-mal.... If it's not even 100% secure then it's not worth sacrificing my freedom to choose.
If you want to achieve something that you think sideloading is the only answer for then maybe try and find another solution? Btw. I’m not arguing we shouldn’t educate people about the dangers of phishing etc etc. just that engineers should find better solutions than shortcuts.
Some people will never understand the need to be vigilant. And even vigilant people have momentary lapses of vigilance.
[edit] i think we’re talking about deliberate sideloading but also accidental sideloading in the same breath here. One enables the other? Accidental sideloading is very much undesirable.
Right, which is why operating systems ship with security and sandboxing features. Security does not require an App Store.
With these kinds of security problems you need to decide where the restrictiveness is best for society and I would very much argue that in the case of phone security it's on the side of sideloading.
> safety interlocks
That's what sideloading switch is.
but on the other hand I already saw people trying Linux and being surprised that after multiple confirmations "this is probably a terrible idea, are you sure" it broke their systems
... and people just click though it without reading, because it's UX 101 -- nobody reads your texts, manuals and things while in the flow.
Sometimes it's a good idea to don't let people do something for their own good.
Never? So, no laws against speeding, no restrictions of the use of DDT, etc?
I think that, to make electronic devices usable for all, we have to restrict what they can do.
> Instead, we should strive to educate people on proper online safety measures
I would say “in addition”, not “instead”. I think it’s a pipe dream we can educate the majority of the population and keep them educated in these things.
Even if we restrict that to the tech savvy, they too grow old, can have periods in their live where they’re so stressed that it limits their thinking, can get mild dementia, etc.