F-Droid and Google's Developer Registration Decree | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository
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For the past 15 years, F-Droid has provided a safe and secure haven for Android users around the world to find and install free and open source apps. When co...

The future of this elegant and proven system was put in jeopardy last month, when Google unilaterally decreed that Android developers everywhere in the world are going to be required to register centrally with Google. In addition to demanding payment of a registration fee and agreement to their (non-negotiable and ever-changing) terms and conditions, Google will also require the uploading of personally identifying documents[^regid], including government ID, by the authors of the software, as well as enumerating all the unique “application identifiers” for every app that is to be distributed by the registered developer.

If it were to be put into effect, the developer registration decree will end the F-Droid project and other free/open-source app distribution sources as we know them today, and the world will be deprived of the safety and security of the catalog of thousands of apps that can be trusted and verified by any and all. F-Droid’s myriad users5 will be left adrift, with no means to install — or even update their existing installed — applications.

      • Medic8teMe@lemmy.caEnglish
        111·
        5 months ago

        I think I’m almost at that time where I dump the internet. I’m 50 and I was an early adopter. I’m a very frequent user, however this is not the internet we all fought for. It’s been slowly eroded to a corporate money grab and I’m not really down for that anymore. I’m tired and I think the internet needs to go away for me.

        • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
          51·
          5 months ago

          I’m pretty much on the Internet to look up information for video games, Fediverse, and write the occasional email. My smart phone is mainly to receive emergency calls from family, coworkers, and the occasional navigation task but they still make GPS units.

          Sounds like we’re both old enough to remember that there is life without the Internet. I could do it. Tech companies are out there acting like there’s no alternative.