I kinda sorta see google’s side. There are just too many shady operators out there who will swear blind they’re completely honest, and maybe they are, but they also employed a third party to write code or maybe just imported a 3rd party lib (i am in no way saying this is the case)
As to, why don’t they look at the code? bugger that being standard practise, i’m not handing over my code to google or apple.
Even if they did, how to check final the uploaded binary?
I’m not doubting the article, but the mobile app world is flooded with shady operators at all levels, and i don’t really buy the real paranoid arguments here
So why not just remove the Contacts API entirely then? If it exists, "shady operators" can misuse it. Oh and, camera apps made by "shady operators" could be sending your pictures to questionable places so why not remove the Camera API as well? And we can't forget that "shady operators" could be snooping through your files so let's remove the filesystem API too.
Actually now that I think about it, any app could be malware, so let's just deal with the root of the problems and remove support for installing third party apps entirely. Everyone should just use apps made by google and nothing else, that way you know there aren't any spooky shady operators hiding under your bed.
They won't let you call anything but their crappy camera app by intent already, for supposed privacy reasons. As you intimate, what is the point of allowing mobile apps, if they can't access any of the features of the device? Because that is where they are heading, fast. A few crappy google apps that require 24/7 spying to work, and then they "protect you" from everyone else. Sounds like an old school mafia street racket.
That sounds like iOS? Only Apple apps have access to all the system level capabilities and you can't replace any of the system apps, not even the browser.
It would be fair if one were to conclude that I don't like iOS. But my comment made a few different points, including about google's app quality, not only forcing default apps but also disallowing user choice where it should exist in a pervasive, hard to see way (for the end user), and invasive tracking.
Frankly, over the last week I have been looking into whether there is a relatively straightforward way to write an app for a mobile linux, because I am at the point I am willing to get rid of several common apps, such as banking apps, to get off this nauseating hamster wheel.
We have the technology for virtual machines, and phones are pretty beefy these days. where's my Linux phone hypervisor with android guest?