Is it possible to allow sideloading *and* keep users safe?

Re:Is it possible to allow sideloading *and* keep users safe? by scarface_74 on Sunday August 31, 2025 @06:36AM (#45082101)

Yes there is a clear part from not being able to install what you want on your phone - even though you are free to buy a phone that you can - and authoritarianism. Did you know that you also can’t drive just anything on the highway and in some places you have to get your car inspected every year before you can drive it?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is it possible to allow sideloading *and* keep users safe? by matt_kantor on Sunday August 31, 2025 @07:44AM (#45082434)

A key part of your analogy is "on the highway", where I am a danger to other people and public infrastructure.

I'm allowed to build a wacky unsafe DIY car and drive it around my own property without getting permission from the government. In many scenarios I don't even need a driver's license.

Bringing the analogy back around, maybe one could argue that if I let my phone get hacked such that it becomes part of a botnet or something then it is a danger to other people, but that's not the typical example. Usually these policies claim to be about protecting me from myself while using a device I own.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is it possible to allow sideloading *and* keep users safe? by scarface_74 on Sunday August 31, 2025 @12:13PM (#45084295)

Yes and you are allowed to use Graphene and whatever “whacky” other open source alternative non Google Android OS’s that HN users always brag about.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is it possible to allow sideloading *and* keep users safe? by Der_Einzige on Sunday August 31, 2025 @09:50AM (#45083140)

Become ungovernable. Works for the french

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is it possible to allow sideloading *and* keep users safe? by userbinator on Sunday August 31, 2025 @03:39PM (#45086360)

in some places

...but not in others. Which is why those who still have the freedom will continue fighting for it.

[ Parent | on HN ]