I don't normally like to write all doom and gloom posts but the fact of the matter is Google after it's recent lawsuits of being a monopoly for search, online advertising, web browser, android to name the main ones but there's probably some other stuff too — the Verge has a good tracker of everything. Turns out when Google removed their don't be evil mantra in 2018 it set the stage for a turn of events some 7 years later we could not foresee or maybe we where just blinded and wearing Google coloured glasses as the company's services have built the modern day life for most people workspace — Gmail, Drive, Photos, Calendar, Tasks, Keep, Docs, Sheets, Slides essentially has their whole entire lives personal and work in it I know mine did for many years but you've also got Maps, Search, YouTube, Translate all helpful and useful services for entertainment, navigation and resource gathering. Google has enriched our lives with services we almost can't live without or makes it very difficult for us to not come back to.
Now enter 2025 and Google is tightening the squeeze of that control that it has in our lives from all angles with a recent announcement essentially trying to destroy Android's current open ecosystem of being able to download an app file from any website or alternative store — yes android already has different stores you can download your apps from not just vendor stores like the Galaxy store you can get apps from APKMirror, APKpure, and F-droid — the latter being my favourite as I am an open source and privacy advocate. How is Google trying to destroy android's openness? well Google will soon verify the identities of developers who distribute Android apps outside the Play Store as developers will be forced to submit their information to a new Android Developer Console, increasing their accountability for their apps. Now you may think this is a good thing right, Google is doing this in the name of security right!? Sorry to burst your bubble but it's not about security it's about a word I mentioned earlier that word being control.
The team at F-droid made a fantastic post which you should read in full so I'm going to take some snippets from it as they say it perfectly:
Now enter 2025 and Google is tightening the squeeze of that control that it has in our lives from all angles with a recent announcement essentially trying to destroy Android's current open ecosystem of being able to download an app file from any website or alternative store — yes android already has different stores you can download your apps from not just vendor stores like the Galaxy store you can get apps from APKMirror, APKpure, and F-droid — the latter being my favourite as I am an open source and privacy advocate. How is Google trying to destroy android's openness? well Google will soon verify the identities of developers who distribute Android apps outside the Play Store as developers will be forced to submit their information to a new Android Developer Console, increasing their accountability for their apps. Now you may think this is a good thing right, Google is doing this in the name of security right!? Sorry to burst your bubble but it's not about security it's about a word I mentioned earlier that word being control.
The team at F-droid made a fantastic post which you should read in full so I'm going to take some snippets from it as they say it perfectly:
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, including government ID.
Uploading any sort of government ID is a joke and a MASSIVE security risk, I'm not saying Google will mishandle the data however companies offload this to companies like Au10tix and Persona so if there is any breach they will be held accountable not the company requesting it not to mention government digital ID's as a whole are a load of hogwash. Some world governments can't even run their countries properly and we're going to entrust them with some of our most secure and private data? Security is in the hands of the end user and as soon as you give personal information away you must now trust that person or company to not do anything malicious. The only person I trust with such data is ultimately MYSELF and ONLY MYSELF.
Google Play itself has repeatedly hosted malware, proving that corporate gatekeeping doesn’t guarantee user protection.
Google’s framing that they need to mandate developer registration in order to defend against malware is disingenuous because they already have a remediation mechanism for malware they identify on a device: the Play Protect service that is enabled on all Android Certified devices already scans and disables apps that have been identified as malware, regardless of their provenience.
Again I install whatever apps I want on my de-googled phone by so called sideloading which is a stupid term, you don't download an application on a macbook or windows PC and sideload the app you just install it that's another corporate term to enforce that you do not own that fancy device you probably paid in upwards of $800 for. Last time I checked if you purchase something i.e. hardware or appliances such as a phone, computer, microwave, fridge etc... You own it not the company who manufactured it and you should be able to do as you wish with it.
We are going down a slippery slope of vendor lock in and totalitarian control from big tech and world governments and it's becoming harder and harder to get out or opt out of these control methods. If you can I strongly urge you to do as I have and de-google your phone and don't rely on their services, move away from big tech and mainstream social media take back your freedom, privacy and put the security in your hands and entrust open source developers to do what they do best, donate to their projects in any amount through whatever methods they allow open collective is the best one or reach out to the developers and ask in ways you can assist.
If you're interested in degoogling and the types of de-googling such as full blown no Google — the extreme case as I have or by slowly getting out of the dragnet by moving to more privacy focused alternatives check out this article. — article is in progress subscribe to get notified when it's released.