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Google Bans Cryptocurrency Mining Apps From the Play Store (bleepingcomputer.com)
The Google Play Store is no longer welcoming apps that mine cryptocurrencies on users' devices. The new policy plainly states: "We don't allow apps that mine cryptocurrency on devices." As a result, Google will start to remove any app from the Play Store that violates these terms. It will however still allow mining apps that are used to control cryptocurrency mining operations on remote devices -- such as servers or desktops. Bleeping Computer reports: Preventing cryptocurrency mining on Android is crucial because untethered mining operations can easily overheat or destroy batteries -- or even devices if the battery case deforms, leaks, or catches fire. Such scenarios have already happened. Android malware strains like Loapi and HiddenMalware have been known to cause physical damage to infected smartphones. Google didn't publicly announce the policy change, but developers who had apps removed complained on Reddit. Other policy changes were also made, such as the decision to ban apps with repetitive content. You can read the new "Restricted Content" section of the Play Store Policy Center here, and compare it to an earlier version here.
Or, indeed, get a refund on a phone/OS that obviously isn't fit for purpose if user-level software running at 100% can cause physical damage to it.
Seriously, why would Google possibly care? In what way does it have any impact whatsoever on the Android Eco-system?
Who is it hurting to run this software? If someone wants to use their phone to run cycles on mining or watching hard core Japanese porno, who's fucking business is it?
"...developers who had apps removed complained on Reddit"
Really, THEY complained?! Those poor developers!
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
No problems here at all. If you want to cook your android device by running constant encryption on it, generating coins at a cost of many times their market value - go ahead and sideload the miner.
But most of the apps containing mining software are tricking users into mining for the app developer - and it's a good thing that they are being removed.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
So basically a company with a monopoly is encouraging developers to not compete with each other.
No, they are saying if you make an Angry Birds clone called Ornery Penguins, you're going to get pulled. I see this as Google saying they don't want clones and spammy apps all with the same content, they want real competition with original content.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
crucial because untethered mining operations can easily overheat or destroy batteries -- or even devices if the battery case deforms, leaks, or catches fire.
Sorry.... If this results just from the resource usage of the App, then this is not an App issue but a Defective device which lacks the appropriate thermal/discharge rate controls on its batteries that should be recalled and not be allowed to be sold.
You can run what you like on your phone. Google is perfectly entitle to choose what it allows in its app store, however if you have a burning desire to run malware-infested crypto-mining apps (or any other kind of restricted apps for that matter), you can get them from an alternative app store, or sideload the apk.
Oh no... it's the future.
the Electroneum app appears to be unaffected, even-though it allows "mobile mining" for ETN coins.
I mined 100 of those ETN for 1 night with a 1080TI, and with my phone I couldn't even mine 1 for a few days, so I don't know if it is even worth it to waste battery and hinder the phone's performance with such an activity as "mobile mining".
Thus the quote marks.
Seriously, why would Google possibly care? In what way does it have any impact whatsoever on the Android Eco-system?
Several ways.
1) It makes Android less attractive as an ecosystem. (ruins battery life, performance, privacy, etc)
2) It provides marketing fodder for competitors to use against them
3) It impacts Google's revenue from their ad business
4) Many of these apps are obvious attempts at fraud
5) Liability due to the above issues
Who is it hurting to run this software?
Most of the people running it as well as Google and companies depending on the Android ecosystem.
If someone wants to use their phone to run cycles on mining or watching hard core Japanese porno, who's fucking business is it?
No one but nothing is preventing you from doing that. Doesn't mean Google is under any obligation to help you do it though. Go ahead and sideload the stuff if it is that important to you. None of us will care I assure you.
You can run mining software off of it, just not with apps from the play store.
It is like selling your house, because you local hardware store doesn't have that replacement pipe.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I've been purchasing computers since 1995 and every one I've purchased, I've been allowed to choose what to run on it, and had the choice to run software that max'd the CPU if I wanted to. ... five or ten years ago I predicted that smartphones would usurp the desktop, and I was wrong, they remain basically toys / dumb appliances, with a few useful applications (e.g. navigation, flashlight, camera).
{...}
This is why smartphones have failed utterly at competing with the desktop, and why desktops are still years ahead for getting real work done
"- What are these 'desktop' and 'workstation' thingy you keep mentioning ? I find these concept fascinating " - Typed some hipster on his ultra slim Mac Book laptop.
Then suddenly his beard caught fire, because the laptop was over heating.
But he didn't regret, the laptop was sooo thin, and so shiny, and such elegance with so few ports...
--
You might have not noticed but (except for us geeks who still dwell on /. ) for the rest of the world, the computing experience has devolved into mostly "navigation", mostly a couple of social websites and a few webapp (that some other hipster wrote in Javascript using 10MiB worth of frameworks on their craptops).
Shitty (from our point of view) laptop and crappy (ditto) smartphone have successfully replaced the desktop, because in practice we're the last bastion that actually *uses* any computer for anything more than posting meme GIFs.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Wouldn't broken phones be good for Google? People would then have to buy more as they keep breaking.
Only Steve Jobs is/was equipped with a potent enough Reality Distortion Field, so that people keep re-buy Apple crapphone even after the previous ones crapped.
Any other brand attempting the same stun would have people coming at them with pitchforks complaining that such low quality CANNOT BE ALLOWED.
Also note that Google themselve doesn't make any relevant amount of money directly on the phone sold.
The manufacturer are making money on they phone.
Google makes most of their "Uncle Scrooge's swimming pool"-level of money on advertisement and monetizing all these juicy personal data that they can milk out of their users. For that, they need the users to come and stay inside their Google Eco-system (use Gmail, use Google Search, use all the other "Google Experience" apps that they force manufacturers to install if they want to have a license to the Google APIs that popular apps use).
For that to happen, they need android to still be a popular platform.
If android start to be hated because they are phone that constantly overheat and eat batteries, there's the risk that the people will switch to some other platform (say if suddenly iPhones started to look less crappy) where their tasty monetizable privacy won't be as accessible (to google) for milking.
I think this is really about what someone earlier mentioned: Cryptocurrency-supported software eliminates the need to support your software with advertisements. Google wants you to use ads, not coins, to support your software, because Google has a monopoly on Internet advertising, but they don't yet have a coin offering.
Yup, that too. Apps not relying on ads (Google Adsense ka-ching !), store and in app purchase (Google Play ka-ching !) would certainly be a risk of slow downs in the stream filling the above mentioned Uncle Scrooge swimming pools.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
They aren't controlling what the customer does. They are controlling what is allowed to be downloaded via their service. I disagree with the blanket disallowing of the apps, but as long as they allow them to sideload, they are only changing which contracts that their system will facilitate.
Sadly they are. PCs are the only place where users have a decent control about their computer. There's no reason for smartphones not to be this way ..save for the fact that the companies that control them make more money if the users have less control over the device
It seems to me that Google is overstepping their duties. It's logical to ban apps that use the device to mine without telling the user but I don't see any reason to ban apps where the user willingly mines. ...but still.
Maybe -as they say in the article- they're doing it to prevent device damage
The problem is that we're giving Apple and Google too much power over our devices. They can basically do whatever they want. I wish an open OS had survived the smartphone wars but, alas, it seems we're stuck with iOS and Android for the foreseable future
More proof that so-called "smart" devices are a euphemism for "computers that you do not, and cannot, control." Mr. Stallman gets proved right again and again.
He does, but not by this. You can control your android phone. Just don't connect it to Google. Problem solved. What, you bought an Android phone without checking first if there was AOSP or LineageOS available for it? Are you new?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
No, a company is not entitled to forever control what their customer does on the device they sold some time ago.
It's a good thing they aren't doing that, then. They're controlling what apps the user can get from their store, full stop. Google doesn't remove apps from your device retroactively when they ban them from the store. You may go now.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I have eight cores in my phone but I'm not allowed to use them for actually running stuff on?
You have a brain in your head but you're not allowed to use it? Google isn't preventing you from loading cryptocurrency apps on Android. They're preventing you from downloading them from their webstore, which they own. If you want such things, sideload them. Since you've got an Android device, you can actually do that... if you can figure out how.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
And then go use that refund to buy which phone to replace it, exactly? I doubt any phone on the consumer market is designed to withstand that kind of use.
I do not have a signature
Pretty sure you can still sideload arbitrary code. The Play Store is not the only feature of your phone.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
I'm looking at this from Google's side. They can support mining software, and deal with:
1) People complaining about crappy battery life because they are running a miner
2) People complaining about their phone overheating and crashing because they are running a miner
3) People complaining about their cryptocurrency disappearing because the application developers didn't secure their shit right
4) Various other problems that I'm not thinking about at the moment, like compatibility issues with certain versions of Android.
OR, they can just say that it's not supported, knowing that most people who are technical enough to install a cryptocurrency miner are smart enough to know how to sideload applications on their phone.
Google doesn't remove apps from your device retroactively when they ban them from the store.
In rare cases they do, at least if your device has the Google Play Protect (formerly called Verify Apps) service enabled. Automatic removal is only done for particularly harmful apps, though. Normally GPP just warns you.
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In rare cases they do, at least if your device has the Google Play Protect (formerly called Verify Apps) service enabled.
Fair point, though as long as you can turn that off (as you still can; I am running Oreo on my Moto G 2nd and I have it disabled) you're still in control of your device. And it's only reasonable to have it on by default, since most users have no clue what they are doing. The first thing I do when I get a new device is reflash it from a known good image, whether manufacturer-provided or an alternate ROM (usually the latter, for Android devices.) The second thing I do is go through every preference page and set it up the way I want. The third thing is to install Ti backup and Solid explorer, and then start restoring apps from backup...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Yes, you can certainly disable it. Though I'd strongly recommend leaving it turned on.
And it's only reasonable to have it on by default, since most users have no clue what they are doing.
No user can possibly know everything that the apps installed on their devices do, especially since it changes day by day as updates are delivered.
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What i see missing one argument point for the phone makers warranty. Phones are not made or designed for that kinda use and i think its well within the phone makers rights to disallow such usage during the warranty period...wonder if that will follow soon.
Jack of all trades,master of none
I assume someone you dislike made a bunch of money on Bitcoin and now you're butthurt.
Most people should have a computer that they cannot control. It should definitely be an option.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
Google censors application to cover up design deficiency in manufacturer partner's phones.
In reality the generic solution is better, let device manufactures set maximum average power draw and throttle apps accordingly when the phone is not connected to an external power supply.
Cheap and efficient is not actually the point of crypt-currencies, it's about spreading out the pool enough to be able to decentralize trust. If you want cheap and effecient, bring back the $500, $1000, and $10,000 dollar bills.
Yes, you can certainly disable it. Though I'd strongly recommend leaving it turned on.
If you turn it on, that means more spying. Google watches what you run. No thanks! I want to sideload things, and have them be my own business and not Google's.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Yes, you can certainly disable it. Though I'd strongly recommend leaving it turned on.
If you turn it on, that means more spying. Google watches what you run. No thanks! I want to sideload things, and have them be my own business and not Google's.
The only thing GPP does is act as a built-in AV. No data is collected for use in advertising, etc.
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