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Comment by eadmund | Hacker News Reader

> Attackers convincing users to side-load malware is a thing.

Sure. It’s also not Google’s problem.

It’s not Victorinox’s problem of someone uses a Swiss Army knife to cut someone else. It’s not Toyota’s problem if someone deliberately runs over a pedestrian.

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Car companies do care if their cars are easy to break into and will improve the security of newer models, even if any particular theft is not their fault.

If they don't do that then their reputation will suffer and governments might take notice. So, in practice, big companies do have to care about their users, not individually but in aggregate.

That's a bad analogy. No one is complaining about Google providing Android security updates.

This is like a car manufacturer preventing the installation of all unapproved aftermarket accessories by claiming they're protecting you from a stalker installing a tracker on your car.

I don’t actually think it’s that bad. If all of a sudden we started hearing an awful lot about Android phones having viruses, to the point where almost everyone had a friend who got a virus on their android. I think the market would actually shift. We’d probably see more people moving to iPhones.

> Car companies do care if their cars are easy to break into and will improve the security of newer models, even if any particular theft is not their fault.

Didn't Kia go over a decade without caring or improving until the Kia Boys stuff?

Yep, it took a while but it eventually caught up with them.

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