Google will allow users to sideload Android apps without verification

Re:Google will allow users to sideload Android apps without ... by Aurornis on Wednesday November 12, 2025 @09:06PM (#45909598)

> because the governments of countries where such scams are widespread will hold Google responsible.

This is the unsurprising consequence of trying to hold big companies accountable for the things people do with their devices: The only reasonable response is to reduce freedoms with those devices, or pull out of those countries entirely.

This happened a lot in the early days of the GDPR regulations when the exact laws were unclear and many companies realized it was safer to block those countries entirely. Despite this playing out over and over again, there are still constant calls on HN to hold companies accountable for user-submitted content, require ID verification, and so on.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google will allow users to sideload Android apps without ... by raincole on Wednesday November 12, 2025 @09:31PM (#45909785)

Yes. The same goes with payment processing. I hate visa/mastercard as much as the next person. But if the court says they're accountable for people who buy drug/firearm/child porn, then it seems to be a quite reasonable reaction for them to preemptively limit what the users can buy or sell.

The government(s) have to treat the middlemen as middlemen. Otherwise they are forced to act as gatekeepers.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google will allow users to sideload Android apps without ... by jacquesm on Wednesday November 12, 2025 @09:21PM (#45909698)

These two things are not the same. The GDPR afforded rights to common people. Those companies that would pull out are the ones that were abusing data that was never theirs and could no longer do so.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google will allow users to sideload Android apps without ... by fingerlocks on Thursday November 13, 2025 @04:15AM (#45912650)

[delayed]

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google will allow users to sideload Android apps without ... by sebastiennight on Thursday November 13, 2025 @04:39AM (#45912801)

> anonymous telemetry

is not covered by GDPR.

And it's a bit hard to believe that these several startups functioned without ever collecting names, emails, IP, phone number, or address of any lead or customer ever.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google will allow users to sideload Android apps without ... by fingerlocks on Thursday November 13, 2025 @05:41AM (#45913278)

Maybe they did? Who knows? Never gonna find out because no one had time to look into it. It certainly wasn’t done with malicious intent, perhaps by accident or oversight, which is likely the situation in most small companies.

[ Parent | on HN ]