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this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2025
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What making things more secure? Google was absolutely NEVER concerned about the security and privacy of their user, it goes directly against their core interest as an advertising company. This move is 100% about taking control over their user and developers on their platform and is exactly 0% about doing anything to improve the security of their user.
Google is not even trying to pretend otherwise, notice how Google is only requiring verification of the developer's, and absolutely not doing anything about verifying the actual apps from those developers, just like they have not really done anything meaningful about security checking the apps submitted on their Play Store since ever.
That's why it's a paradox. They are claiming to do something for security, where in actuality their stricter policies are doing the opposite. This move essentially renders apk's built-in signing mechanisms worthless. Android is going down the path now of being as insecure as MS Windows when it comes to app installation.
This is not gonna stop rogue apks from outside Google's store, it's just gonna make them less secure.
This is not gonna stop alternative stores, it's actually gonna make them more important for further security checks.
This is not gonna give Google more control over Android, it's gonna make it easier for abusers to gain control.
I suspect a step Google could take is start adding extra warnings and layers of confirmation when it comes to installing apps making use of debug keys to try and deter users from doing it.. but this could then annoy developers, numb users to the warnings, and strengthen the case regarding anti-competitive behavior.
Is it a paradox, or is it just lying?
I'm just calling it a paradox because they are making it less secure by enforcing stricter security.
It's like how creating stricter regulation against drugs sometimes results in more problems with drugs than when the regulation was more relaxed. To me, that's a paradox.
Generally, a stricter security policy results in more security, but there are times it gives the opposite reaction when the stricter policy causes a trend that popularizes alternative methods that are actually less secure. There's always the social factor, and that one is not easily predictable... in fact, it could be that I'm wrong and most devs will decide to register with Google, or simply stop supporting official Android firmware, instead of relying on insecure debug keys. We'll see.