Slashdot Mirror
Google Starts Blocking 'Uncertified' Android Devices From Logging In (arstechnica.com)
Google logins on unlicensed devices will now fail at setup, and a warning message will pop up stating "Device is not certified by Google," reports Ars Technica. "This warning screen has appeared on and off in the past during a test phase, but XDA (and user reports) indicate it is now headed for a wider rollout." From the report: While the basic operating system code contained in the Android Open Source Project is free and open source, Google's apps that run on top of Android (like the Play Store, Gmail, Google Maps, etc.) and many others are not free. Google licenses these apps to device makers under a number of terms designed to give Google control over how the OS is used. Google's collection of default Android apps must all be bundled together, there are placement and default service requirements, and devices must pass an ever-growing list of compatibility requirements to ensure app compatibility. Android distributions that don't pass Google's compatibility requirements aren't allowed to be called "Android" (which is a registered trademark of Google), so they are Android forks. The most high-profile example of an Android fork is Amazon's Kindle Fire line of products, but most devices that ship in China (where Google doesn't do much business) fall under the umbrella of an "Android fork," too.
While Google's Android apps are only properly available as a pre-loaded app (or through the pre-loaded Play Store), they are openly distributed on forums, custom ROM sites, third-party app stores, and other places online. When a non-compatible device seller (or a user) loads these on a device, they can potentially trigger Google's new message at login. The message pops up when you try to log in to Google's services, which usually happens during the device setup. Users who purchased the device are warned that "the device manufacturer has preloaded Google apps and services without certification from Google," and users aren't given many options other than to complain to the manufacturer. At this point, logging in to Google services is blocked, and non-tech-savvy users will have to live without the Google apps. Users of custom Android ROMs -- which wipe out the stock software and load a modified version of Android -- will start seeing this message, too.
While Google's Android apps are only properly available as a pre-loaded app (or through the pre-loaded Play Store), they are openly distributed on forums, custom ROM sites, third-party app stores, and other places online. When a non-compatible device seller (or a user) loads these on a device, they can potentially trigger Google's new message at login. The message pops up when you try to log in to Google's services, which usually happens during the device setup. Users who purchased the device are warned that "the device manufacturer has preloaded Google apps and services without certification from Google," and users aren't given many options other than to complain to the manufacturer. At this point, logging in to Google services is blocked, and non-tech-savvy users will have to live without the Google apps. Users of custom Android ROMs -- which wipe out the stock software and load a modified version of Android -- will start seeing this message, too.
Geez they are really doing their absolute best to piss off and alienate their core fanbase.
Google's software is free, and is commonly tied to a Google account that helps them develop their advertising platform. Why would they want to encourage Android forks to replace Google's apps with non-Google ones?
You can get .apks from 3rd party stores, and you're better off without Google's clown ... I mean cloud ... spyware. And you'll still be able to log into GMail using a real mail client (Outlook Mobile or K-9 mail) rather than Google's toylike GMail app.
Unless its us. Then fuck you.
Subject says it all.
Delightful to find that people have finally started to realize that all mobile ecosystems are a walled garden, if you thought it didn't have a wall you just didn't look.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Seriously, this should take about a second. Simply have it always return 'Pixel 2' (or something similar).
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
It is only a matter of time before ISP's and mobile phone carriers start doing this too. Eventually you will only be able to connect to networks using "approved" devices manufactured by the handful of megacorporations that control the Internet. Of course, no one here thinks this can happen, but think of the children! And the terrorists, and the terrorist children...
my phones battery life is double since getting rid of their spyware framework on a "certified" device, rather not have their crap - theres loads of alternatives for software on your own "cloud"
Maybe this will stem the proliferation of shit android devices.
Google has no obligation to let anyone who can slap together an SoC with memory and a screen use their branded services.
Next maybe they'll clean some of the shit and malware off of the play store.
They can do as they please...BUT...piss off enough customers, advertisers, app creators and someone else WILL come along with a competing system.
Almost everything in Android is open source or was. The barrier to entry for is not that large that another company can't fork what is already out there and create a smart phone. Google is just asserting
1) that if you want to call something Android you have to pass their tests
2) if you want to run some of their apps, those apps expect to run in an environment that passed the Android certification
At this point it is more about quality control and user experience than it is creating a walled garden. I'm sure you can create a fork that is even better than Android but unless Google has tested that it's at least as good as some minimum standard you can't call it Android. I don't see how this is a big deal.
As described in the XDA link, custom ROM users aren't shut out. Individual users can request whitelisting of up to 100 devices, and makers of custom ROMs can also contact Google to get their standard images approved by default.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
"mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make" - Andy Rubin
A walled garden is designed to keep you in. In a walled garden, the user has no choice - they cannot leave. Prohibiting access to other app stores makes for a walled garden. So does prohibiting certain apps which compete with yours.
This move is designed to keep people using non-approved Android installations out. You still have the option of choosing if you want to be on the inside or outside. In that respect it's fence with a gate in it, not a wall. And FWIW the common Google Apps (Gmail, Maps, Calendar, Docs, etc.) still work fine in a browser. So the fence has a lot of holes in it.
The crucial part will be if they include the Play Store in the list of apps which won't work. It's by far the biggest store in the Android marketplace. Amazon's is a distant second. And a lot of the apps in both the Play and Amazon stores aren't updated as frequently in Amazon's store.
adb shell content query --uri content://settings/secure --where "name=\'android_id\'"
adb shell content delete --uri content://settings/secure --where "name=\'android_id\'"
adb shell content insert --uri content://settings/secure --bind name:s:android_id --bind value:s:
So there's going to be tons of apps to set your android_id. It's not going to stop many people from getting gapps, but it may well result in people having borked android_id's on previously "certified" phones.
IMO opinion would have been better to block access to gapps until the user acknowledges usage of uncertified device along with the obligatory "You may be insecure and apps may not work properly...." message.
I can side load all I want on my Android. What I can't do is use google's apps without their permission. Moreover vendors don't get to sell a phone with google apps without their permission; which so far seems to be meeting minimum standards for compatibility to prevent fragmentation.
Hell, if you RTFA google left a back door in. It's a pain in the ass to use (You have to get your Android Id) but it's there. And if you're an enthusiast running your own roms it's not a big deal. It's just not something that a company selling an Android phone can expect their customers to do.
This has nothing to do with walling the garden. This has to do with protecting the Android brand.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
It's been a long time coming.
We've been stuck with Android as the de facto mobile OS for quite a few years now, and it's time for greed to take hold. The mobile world desperately needs some new blood.
Hopefully Google will ban all power users, so that we can stop being lazy and work on a replacement OS.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
What were the smart droids at AlphaGoo thinking? This definitely stinks Anti-Trust with a capital E (for EU). Or maybe the G is thinking of pulling out of Europe and concentrate on their core audience beyond Europe, China, and Russia?
Custom ROMs won't be blocked if the owner registers the device with Google. They can still use their custom ROMs.
The slashdot editors will copy an entire article, without doing any editing, but they won't post the part everyone cares about.
It was my understanding that purchasing a "certified device" (like say a Pixel XL) with GApps preinstalled, includes a licence to use GApps on that device. I'd expect that flashing a new ROM would not void that licence. Yet reports show even Google's own devices are described as "uncertified" after being flashed.
Can you clarify? I get that this move is to hamper unlicenced vendors from including GApps themselves, but it's surprising to see Google also requiring whitelisting for legitimate devices that are definitely licenced.
When you think the spooks are in it with the leftists it probably means your understanding of politics is totally borked.
If /. had bothered to read through the entire article, they'd have gotten to the important bit:
We've actually been unknowing victims of illicit Google app distribution here at Ars before. We once imported a Xiaomi Redmi 3 smartphone from China to review, and, upon booting it up, we were very surprised to find it came with the Google apps pre-installed. As a device from China, this should not have happened. After we posted the review, Xiaomi contacted us with some very scary news: "The Redmi 3 should not come with Google Play pre-installed because it is a China-only product." Xiaomi told Ars. "It is very likely that the Play Store you saw was preinstalled by the importer/seller. This is a very common practice with the unauthorised importers."
This would mean the reseller opened our phone, unlocked the bootloader, flashed on a new ROM with Google Play, re-locked the bootloader, and stuck the phone back in the box. There was no obvious evidence that our device had been tampered with, and, while hopefully the seller only installed Google apps, they could have just as easily loaded malware onto the device. A message like this during setup would have been a big red flag that something was wrong.
This is what Google is trying to fight against here: man-in-the-middle attacks by people selling / re-selling Android devices with pre-loaded malware or spyware. Custom ROM installs are getting hit because they're basically middle-ware too; the difference is that this is stuff that the end-user is specifically authorizing, so there's a workaround to let you install it if you want to.
Gotta make sure the devices spy on you correctly. Maybe this was a condition imposed by fedgov or the Chicoms, if duh Goog wants to continue drinking that sweet sweet black budget money.
Now that the dominant position is established the core principles which were hinted at during development of Android can be thrown out. Developers outside of Google who helped widely to establish this ecosystem from the grassroots can also go f* themselves now. It's just business as usual.
Looks like consumers who unwittingly buy non-Hooli, sorry, I mean non-Google phones and tablets are going to find out the advantages and disadvantages of F-Droid https://f-droid.org/ sooner or later. No, you can't get the Facebook or Twitter apps, which you might regard as a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what you want to do with your phone/tablet and how much you value your privacy.
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
Are they going to screw with Cyanogen Mod users?
Just wondering.
Gotta make sure the devices spy on you correctly
It's quite ironic that this mostly effects phones from Chinese vendors.
2) if you want to run some of their apps, those apps expect to run in an environment that passed the Android certification
The problem is that a lot of 3rd party apps end up calling API from the Google Services,
so you end up needing Google's code even if you don't want to run Google's App.
(i.e.: I don't want to run Youtube or Gmail apps, but an app I rely on needs the map displaying library from Google Services).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Who gives a shit about Google?
I use Bing exclusively.
The Communist Chinese can keep Google.
Block custom ROM users from using the Play Store? This could trigger a huge wave of piracy.
So many companies take away user choice, forcibly spy on you and generally fuck you over for their own good.
It seems like every day I'm screwed by a tech company, Example - Yesterday, updated android phone. My original Android keyboard was replaced with "GBOARD" which is Google's Keyboard. After looking around, all telemetry and "Writing sameples sent back to google" were on by default. Just the fact that the telemetry feature is built in to a keyboard creates dis-trust.
I'll be going to one of the forks and living without google even if it means some inconviences.
the 2010s will be known as the time when customer choice was removed, user-hostile technology was created and user privacy was forcibly taken away.
Shitty times.
The core base who is technical enough to install cooked ROMs is technical enough to find alternate sources for play store apps. And since they're going to all that extra trouble, that many more users will simply decide not to pay for them.
How is it ironic to ensure proper snooping of the population of a major economic power? Sounds like a reasonable thing to do, if you're enthusiastic about the whole panoptic surveillance thing.
Independent devs like at XDA Developers have been sideloading gapps against the terms of its license for just about forever. The Google Services framework is Google's magic handcuffs, without which the users have no meaningful experience (because apps depend on it). So Google's desire to abandon AOSP by making it meaningless (because of insufficiency) will no longer be thwarted. (Without clever hacks. But let's face it, it's getting harder and harder to find clever hacks. Safetynet has been out there for a while, and if you root or alter your phone, odds are good Safetynet will bust you and prevent paranoid apps (like Google Pay) from running.)
This is just the Safetynet experience made broader. Good for Google; meh for users. But most users are comfortable inside their pens.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Welp, if I happen to get locked out, looks like it's time to switch to f-droid. It's been a long time comin' anyway.
My kodi box came with loads of pre-loaded apps - will I be affected by this?
How many times have Fandroids defended Android, and Google's supposed "Inability" to Control things like Security Updates, because it is SUPPOSEDLY "Open Source" and "Google has NO CONTROL over OEMs and Carriers because Android is OPEN SOURCE"???
Riiiiiight. Seems they can shut off the spigot from EITHER end. IOW, they actually have ULTIMATE Control!
Enjoy your PSEUDO Open-Source OS, AND the built-in FaceBook spyware, while you're at it...
Class action is now necessary.
Hrm, been thinking it's time to start weaning myself of the free stuff online anyways.
This might the real catalyst I need.
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
After YouTube announcing they'll be disallowing certain types of videos, I gotta hand it to Google. They're becoming quite proficient at shooting themselves in the foot. This time with a shotgun. Nice work. Piss everyone off, make jail-broke phones useless on your services. Good job. Are you trying to give up market share to a new competitor to the field, or are you just pulling a Microsoft and not giving a flying f what people think, you got them trapped?
Either way, you're playing with fire here, Google. You are not Microsoft. Your OS is open source, anyone can pick up the pieces and rebuild a new Android that rivals your own and doesn't include the proprietary bullshit.
People would be wise to not put all their eggs in one basket (google). All my gmail addresses are for spam and my google voice number is so I can give out instead if my real number. Don't use drive or any other shit. Calendar is partially useful but I can do without it. Get out of the Google ecosystem and give them a collective "Fuck You".
> Doesn't the Real APK require that you do everything with hosts files?
Only APKy appy APK app can APK apps!
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user