Google Says India Antitrust Order Poses Threat To National Security

Google warned on Friday that if the Indian antitrust watchdog's ruling is allowed to progress it would result in devices getting expensive in the South Asian market and lead to proliferation of unchecked apps that will pose threats for individual and national security, escalating its concerns over the future of Android in the key overseas region. From a report: "Predatory apps that expose users to financial fraud, data theft and a number of other dangers abound on the internet, both from India and other countries. While Google holds itself accountable for the apps on Play Store and scans for malware as well compliance with local laws, the same checks may not be in place for apps sideloaded from other sources," the company wrote in a blog post, titled "Heart of the Matter." The Competition Commission of India has slapped two fines against Google, alleging the Android-maker abused the Play Store's dominant position in the country and required Android device makers to pre-install its entire Google Mobile Suite.

Yea, of course they would say that.

[Narcocide]

But they don't do a good enough job at it to be a sufficient substitute for user education, let alone justify the damage they're doing to the market.

Re:Yea[h], of course they would say that.

[shanen]

Military dictatorship is the unilateral leadership model all evil corporations love. On that basis the real threat of unions is bilateral management considering two roughly equal partners. However the real world is much more complicated and multilateral. I suppose that could be an argument in favor of democracy, but the authoritarians are not begging to differ. They prefer shoot outs to resolve the differences...

So as I see things, the main problem is that non-evil corporations are becoming extinct?

Amazon Fire Store

[Midnight Thunder]

Unless there is regulatory requirements around app stores (such as mandatory malware checking, authenticity checking and API abuse checking), then theyâ(TM)ll just end up being another source of questionable software, such as with the Amazon Fire App Store or the one from Epic.

Epic was in the news a number of years ago for being a source of malware with their store. On Amazonâ(TM)s side it was trying to download the FlightTracker software, that was anything but legitimate.

Tantra lessons for lawyers

[Ajay Anand]

Google's lawyers must have taken Tantra lessons from India to come up with excuses of 1990s when today sandboxing based witchcraft is the norm.

We wouldn't have that problem

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

if the only choice on offer wasn't either an Apple device with an Apple walled garden or an Android device with a Google semi-walled garden (semi-walled because while side-loading is possible, it's not necessarily obvious to every user).

If the world of mobile device wasn't a duopoly of ultra-greedy corporations whose business model revolves on stealing data and selling personal data, it would be possible to have, say, open hardware and third-party app stores that go through security compliance certification, that the user could choose based on the price of the subscription and the services offered, should they want some peace of mind compared to side-loading.

I think I see you're problem

[rsilvergun]

There's no such thing as a corporation that isn't ultra-greedy. Or at least not for very long. There's LLCs, but that's not what folks mean when they say "corporation". They mean publicly traded. And if you're not maximizing shareholder value an "activist investor" will eat you alive.

Dogs and Cats, living together!

[rsilvergun]

MASS HYSTERIA!

Scary words

[jriding]

So sick of companies just using scary words and politicians believing them so they never have regulations or oversight.

Maybe true

[RUs1729]

However, this is coming from an entity with a very substantial interest in such a thing being true. Which implies that its credibility is zero, regardless of whether or not their assertion is true.

GrapheneOS sandboxes Google Play

[Khopesh]

My only experiences with Android have been with GrapheneOS [grapheneos.org], an AOSP-derived project focused on security and privacy. It sandboxes Google Play [grapheneos.org] and I don't have any other Google software installed.

You can always rely on

[Djdatlondon]

Google to press the most bullshit there is out there. Anybody who believes anything they ever say is a fucking arsehole. This is real life google, Not some tech controlled bollocks you think rules the world, Because I can assure you it doesn't. I'm watching you slowly burn.