Google is changing the way we install Android apps from developers that haven’t registered with Google. There will be ramifications for those of us who use Android with open-source apps and alternative app stores. Google says these changes are in the name of security, and that’s valid—but what about the far more numerous and far more dangerous threats that exist inside the Play Store?

The Play Store is hardly a safe place to look for software

It is not a store I trust my parents to navigate on their own

Starting soon, Android users will need to wait at least 24 hours to install apps from developers who have not verified themselves with Google. Google says this move is to protect against ransomware and similar scams where people are pressured over the phone to install illegitimate apps that grant someone else access to their device. Apps from developers who simply do not want to trust Google with their personal ID, address, or contact information just happen to be caught in the crossfire.

I don’t deny that these types of scams are a very real problem, nor am I arguing here that Google’s approach is necessarily a bad one. The thing is, it’s not like I feel safe letting the very same people that Google is looking out for to navigate the Play Store on their own. I’ve watched people download apps from the Play Store and end up with phones that are laden with a constant stream of intrusive notifications and app icons on their homescreen that they don’t recognize. And those are just the downsides that they notice.

In the background, apps are requesting all kinds of permissions, snatching up our contacts and uploading the phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses of all of our friends, loved ones, and colleagues. Apps are monitoring our location and keeping tabs of every click. Apps have deceptive full-screen ads that mask the close button in an attempt to make us accidentally click the advertised link instead.

Apps are filled with microtransactions that leech us of our money. Games have all kinds of gimmicks, such as limited energy, daily rewards, and pesky notifications that nudge us to open the app every single day. Apps in the Play Store go after our attention, our personal information, our finances, and personal files. To make matters worse, this is all done by the apps that Google considers safe, the ones that remain after Google semi-regularly announces a purge of sketchy apps from the Play Store.

Google could do so much more to educate users about threats

Alternate app stores offer a better model

Many dangerous apps aren’t hidden or obscure. Apps from Meta, for example, have been widely known to track everything you view on Facebook and Instagram, down to how much time you spend looking at one screen versus another. There’s even a section deep in your account settings that shows what information Meta tracks from “off Meta technologies”. But it’s a mistake to assume that this information is common knowledge. People may increasingly have generally iffy feelings about Facebook, but most don’t have the technical understanding of how Facebook does what it does. There’s not a single warning on the Play Store about this kind of behavior.

Alternate stores like F-Droid, which exclusively provides free and open source software, lists what it considers anti-features—such as if an app uploads any information from your device, has any form of tracking, or if it needs access to your location. The Aurora App Store provides a web warning that leads to a list of known trackers. The App Lounge on devices running /e/OS/, like my Murena Fairphone (Gen 6), even displays a privacy score for each app.

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Murena

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The Murena Fairphone (Gen. 6) is the perfect option to bring together privacy and sustainability. Powered by the /e/OS operating system, the Fairphone (Gen. 6) protects you and your data at all times, while at the same time protecting the planet.

If an app is tracking you, that sort of thing should not be hidden under three drop-down menus. There should be a bright red warning label somewhere close to the download button.

Google is guilty of the things we need to be protected from

The company profits from bad behavior

Credit: Andy Betts / How-To Geek

Google is a massive ad tech company. It is one of the largest money-generating machines in the world, and it has become this by gathering more information about us than any other entity, with only rivals like Amazon and Meta getting anywhere close. Google uses this data to target us in ways previous generations of advertisers could only dream of.

It is not in Google’s interest to inform us when apps are tracking us. This would invite the obvious accusation of being a hypocrite when it applies the warning to other companies’ apps but not its own. For Google, it’s better to let the open season on our information continue, information that is bought and sold and leaked and hacked.

Google also profits from the nefarious tactics used to get us to make in-app purchases. If an app encourages us to keep tapping a buy button, Google gets a cut of every tap, no matter the means. This business model is the same dynamic in the Apple App Store, and it is a big part of how Apple became the most highly valued company in the world. If Google were to take a hard stance against these harmful tactics, it would directly impact Google’s bottom line.

Google is happy to protect us from other app stores but not its own.

A growing number of my favorite apps, like the Escape Launcher to replace my home screen and the Lotus music player, are not available in the Play Store. Yet I am insulated from Google’s changes because I’m currently installing these apps on the Murena Fairphone (Gen 6), a phone that runs an alternate and open version of Android without Google Play Services installed. That means I forego Google’s protection, but also its restrictions.

Yet when I think of my parents running regular Android devices, the very kind of people that Google is trying to protect by putting restrictions on apps installed from outside the Play Store, I feel they would actually be safer with a phone like mine. Most of the threats to their phones haven’t come from outside the Play Store but from within.