Hacker News Reader

Comment by sn0n | Hacker News Reader

I turned on "Advanced Protection" a couple weeks ago, and promptly turned it off the other day when it blocked f-droid updates. What a scam android has become.

View on HN

Samsung [^1] has an autoblocker. I have no idea what it does exactly. I always need to turn it off while installing or updating anything from F-droid. Then I enable it again in the naive hope it might prevent dome drive-by attack.

[^1]: My employer paid for it. I never would pay for the crapware full of uninstallable stuff I don't want. Is Pure Android still a thing if you don't want to pay The Evil Company?

I've been using Motorola for years, for that reason.

Interestingly, I read in a recent article on upcoming features for OneUI 8.5 (based on a leaked build) is the "Ability to temporarily disable Auto Blocker" [1]. This is specifically to allow the sideloading of apps. That really makes me wonder why Samsung would have such an option in an upcoming version if they were aware that Google is planning to block all unverified sideloading in the very near future.

[1] https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-galaxy-phones-new-u...

Twoo scenarios:

1. Samsung hasn't adjusted the product roadmap yet.

2. Samaung plans to modify Android to remove the extra checks that Google wants.

I have a Samsung and I can install apps from F-Droid. I don't even understand what is "Auto Blocker" and why you need it when there are permissions, but I have it disabled.

NothingOS is as clean as it gets

Motorola is quite close to the 'pure' Android, ie with all that Google... stuff.

But most of the time it is easy to disable most of the Google apps through the built-in settings without using any 3rd-party tools.

> What a scam android has become.

An optional advanced security feature targeted at non-typical users doesn't seem like a good indicator of this statement.

How is blocking fdroid updates an "advanced security feature"?

The opt-in security feature is blocking all installs from outside the play store.

That's just android by default, nothing can install apks apart from the play store, without an explicit permission from the user.

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/9764949?hl=en

Wow. Amazing that we have layers and layers of "security", but it's still not enough, we clearly need more.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com