> Instead, what we get from Google is a system whose security is convenient for advertisers first, and not users, so it doesn't offer that level of empowerment even though some AOSP forks do. You either give it all of your contacts or pictures or none of them. Making a secure system that also empowers users would mean that they and their partners can't collect user data. We're shown scary warnings about installing apps outside of the Play Store and are assured that Play Protect means that everything on the Play Store is secured.

This literally isn't true since Android 10 and has been even more hardened in Android 11. Now the apps ONLY see the pictures you, as user, allow them to see. The same goes for file access, location access and plenty of other security model changes in last two Android versions.

So your rant about how evil Google caters to advertisers only really becomes wierd when they literally implemented the change you want.