That’s absolutely a motivator for Google but simply leaving things open ended also means they can’t enforce anything at all.
Scammer: -releases scammer shady product-
Google: we don’t want you using our products to scam users. We are blocking this.
Scammer: fine, I’ll throw it on an alt store and create errors when it’s run on an unmodified device. I’ll just require users switch to scamROM.
Google: fine, we’ll let you in the play store.
No, the answer there is if scammers release scammy software and it’s not on the Play Store, that’s it. They’ve done their part and my job is to not be a tool and be careful if I’m sideloading, use things like VirusTotal, or otherwise just not install software that’s not vetted or open source where I can review the code. Nothing forces a user to use “ScamROM” or whatever example.
I don’t want Google policing my activity on my device.
I don’t want it either but you and I are not their only customers. We aren’t even in the majority of their customers. Most users want a Skinner box to look at porn and cat videos. That’s who Google is prioritizing.
That’s absolutely a motivator for Google but simply leaving things open ended also means they can’t enforce anything at all.
Scammer: -releases scammer shady product- Google: we don’t want you using our products to scam users. We are blocking this. Scammer: fine, I’ll throw it on an alt store and create errors when it’s run on an unmodified device. I’ll just require users switch to scamROM. Google: fine, we’ll let you in the play store.
See? There’s no winning here.
No, the answer there is if scammers release scammy software and it’s not on the Play Store, that’s it. They’ve done their part and my job is to not be a tool and be careful if I’m sideloading, use things like VirusTotal, or otherwise just not install software that’s not vetted or open source where I can review the code. Nothing forces a user to use “ScamROM” or whatever example.
I don’t want Google policing my activity on my device.
I don’t want it either but you and I are not their only customers. We aren’t even in the majority of their customers. Most users want a Skinner box to look at porn and cat videos. That’s who Google is prioritizing.