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Comment by wernsey | Hacker News Reader

The cynic in me believes Google is doing this to exert more control over the Android ecosystem, and has very little to do with security.

I'm also afraid it will make it easier for Google to bend to authoritarian regimes and ban developers whose apps are not government approved.

Think it can't happen? Think different:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/10/apple-bends-to-t...

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Didnt Apple get away with lot of App Store scrutiny with their current model. Why else wouldnt other app stores follow the practice?

A desire to treat their customers like adults. Or to feign that desire temporarily to win the market share of those for whom that's important.

To sell food to others, you need to get a "restaurant license". I dont think anyone would argue that people should be able to buy food from whoever. And I dont think that's what "treating people like adults mean".

I use food as an example to illustrate the point. I'm aware that food != app, but the point is when you offer goods/services in a modern society at scale, it is reasonable to verify yourself.

I think people should be able to buy food from whomever. I don't see why not. You can't go over to your friend's house and toss them some cash for a steak or wings or whatever? What, they aren't a professional chef with a license granted to them by a bureaucrat, you could get sick and die!

It's easy for me to judge what software is safe to use and mitigate what risk might exist. It's impossible for me to judge what food is safe to eat and being wrong could kill me.

Come on. There's a reason government regulates food and not apps. Government is at least accountable to us, and at the time food safety regulation norms were established, was trustworthy to act in our interest. Google and Apple never were.

> It's easy for me to judge what software is safe to use

How do you do that? Do you read the source code of the app you're sideloading?

Don't be obtuse. I can tell the difference between yt-dlp with 130,000 stars on github and some AI/crypto shovelware or a Spotify unlocker downloaded from a .ru site.

And the point isn't that it's impossible for me to get it wrong, it's that it should be my choice and my business and I'll accept the responsibility if it's less easy than I thought. The Apple types can have an easy mode where Apple decides what's safe. We can have it both ways.

Surely this is a time where you don't have to much of a cynic at all to believe this.

Sadly true. There was a time I would've given them the benefit of the doubt.

And don't call me Shirley

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