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Comment by nuker | Hacker News Reader

> My parents are getting old and they aren't tech savvy. The missing piece here is that I want my parents to have a computer they can safely do their banking on, without leaving them vulnerable to scams and viruses and the like.

Purists always forget this point :) What is best for 99% of people.

And dumb Euro bureaucrats.

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That's what can be achieved by encapsulation/containerization of apps: a la flatpak, snaps, docker or VMs...

I found my parents to install random crappy adware apps from official stores too. What protects their banking application is granular permissions, not root access.

Why not give people the freedom to choose what they want

It will be exploited. Key word above - not tech savvy.

The only reason we have convenient banking, gov and streaming apps today is because of guaranteed and enforced mobile security by big boys Apple and Google. (Google being Ad company is another matter, not relevant here).

No, we have convenient online services in spite of the endless security theater that permeates consumer tech. All it's done is gradually increase maintenance burden and technical complexity until useful features are slowly stripped out to create a more "streamlined" experience. The mobile app for my credit union has become so shitty that I'm not even sure if losing access to it is a deal-breaker for rooting my phone - I already prefer to do my online banking and shopping on my laptop.

There is no "just works" technical solution for a problem caused mainly by naivete and gullibility. Governments and the private sector know this, of course; as others have said, the real purpose is to control users, not to protect them.

> No, we have convenient online services in spite of the endless security theater that permeates consumer tech.

Disagree. No banking app can resist root access owned by attacker.

Why is the banking server trusting the client? Thats criminally incompetent security. If your website gets hacked because a client had "root" whose fault is it?

Because the unknowing user has entered their auth credentials?

I see the cause of confusion. I was assuming and talking about the case of the legitimate user have a root/non locked down device as being imputed as the "attacker". I don't think he was talking about other people stealing or having acces to your device. And in any case, all bets are off then if you meant that scenario. At least with a browser user can choose not to save passwords and the attacker won't get bank creds, so even in that case a web app would be better.

They all existed before mobile apps on systems you don't control became prevalent.

This was just useful for them.

All of these existed well before mobile phones and so called "enforced security". Almost all these apps are wrappers around web functionality.

Really? They couldn't just use a website?

We've literally had convenient online banking for two decades at this point without any DRM.

Don't rewrite history.

If we have to always appeal to the lowest of the low, the stupidest of the stupidest, then society sucks ass.

What's even the point of me being alive is I can't do anything that isn't completely idiot-proof and made for goo goo ga ga users?

Look, I get it. Think of the children! Think of the granny!

But I'm not a child, I'm an adult. I would like to be treated as such. Otherwise what the fuck are we even doing here? Why can't I just live in daycare forever? Why am I paying bills?

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