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Google wants to make stolen Android phones basically unsellable
(www.androidauthority.com)
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this post was submitted on 14 May 2025
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Android
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Here's a better idea: how about NOT making phones such stupidly high value items where thieves can access your bank account, make an instant loan and steal that, too?
Doesn't your bank need 2 sets of creds to log in? Mine does.
also, i like my phone to be fast. If i wanted my phone just be a cheap thing, i'd buy a second hand google flagship from 3 years ago and flash with custom rom.
With my phone being high end, comes the risk of theft, like with virtually anything high end (watches, ice, etc)
Yeah, like access to "your" phone. Kind of stupid. It's like fuck you to all banks. Get PGP signature services and fuck off with you demanded access to my fucking camera and mic.
That's irrelevant when the mugger is holding a gun at you and telling you to input the passwords.
I wasn't sure what you meant. I assumed someone stole your phone and tried to get into it.
I'm not sure how you can protect anything from the 5 dollar wrench attack :/
probably not having a phone or credit card. I'm sorry that fucked up shit is happening in Brazil.
There's a significant difference between your phone being stolen and this random scenario you just made up.
This is literally one of the most common scenarios in Brazil. The city of Sao Paulo alone had over 103k cell phones stolen in 2023, almost every week on the news there's a story about someone being forced at gunpoint to make a bank transfer before the criminals flee with the cellphone. In other situations, the victim is taken to a bank agency and the cash is drawn to the daily limit from a ATM (lightning kidnapping as it's called here)
Be thankful this kind of shit doesn't happen where you live
On the other hand I like that my phone does those things and don't want it to be sellable in the event that someone decides to steal it.
I used to work on phones, it was so great getting to help design these pocket computers the way I wanted to use them. I honestly saw the future being something like, "ok, cloud is a bit of a trust reach, but on the other hand, your phone becomes a cheap access terminal." I assumed we'd hit a point, with how cheap the hardware inside the machine is, (to this day) where phones would ostensibly become something you could grab from a vending machine. They'd eventually become highly recyclable so you could just take an old phone and chuck it in a recycling bin to have the parts repurposed/recycled.
"Oh crap, my phone just fell out of my pocket and got run over!" Go to vending machine, chuck old phone in recycling, log in to new phone, old phone is nuked remotely if it still functions, new phone starts caching your "phone". You're back in business in minutes.
Phones would have no value to be stolen, phones are accessible to all walks of life, a fairness of technology access helps balance the world.
None of that happened, instead, it was a war of walled gardens, information hoarding, privacy violations, expense, distrust, and loan pyramid schemes so people can dump $1500 on $50-$200 worth of parts that will probably just end up being stolen and sold in aftermarket/underground markets in countries that are less well-off.
I'm kinda irked I ever tried to work on the tech to make lives better and do not regret my choice to not go back to that industry.
Heh, your vision is kinda like the one Google was touting back when they first announced/launched Chromebooks.
"Oh it broke? Login in on another and your computer is back!"
Don't know if the modern Chromebook/ChromeOS still works like that.
Edit: Oh wow, check out this super over the top ad they made to drive the point home, It's still on the Chrome Youtube channel!