With a petition, developers hope to prevent Google from proceeding with its plan to acquire complete control over which applications you can install on Android, even outside the Play Store.
With a petition, developers want to prevent Google from proceeding with its plan to restrict the installation of apps even outside the Play Store. The petition is called Keep Android Open, and aims to mobilize stakeholders worldwide. According to the initiative, both consumers, developers and governments would be disadvantaged if Google is allowed to implement its plan.
Complete Control via Registration
In August, it became known that Google would use its power over the Android ecosystem by introducing a registration obligation for all developers who create Android apps. Google is not focusing on apps that it distributes itself via the Play Store, because those are already subject to obligations. Google now wants to ensure that installing APKs yourself also becomes impossible, unless they are linked to identifiable developers.
Registration must of course be with Google itself. Everyone who wants to create an Android APK must identify themselves there, share identity details, agree to Google’s terms and conditions, and pay 25 dollars.
If Google can proceed with the plan, it will essentially acquire total control over what users can and cannot install on certified Android smartphones. In practice, these are all Android phones that are on the market here.
In the Name of Security
Google claims that it wants to guarantee the security of the OS in this way, but this reasoning is problematic. To begin with, Google cannot fully guarantee the security of apps within its own Play Store. Furthermore, it is not Google’s responsibility to get involved with the software that users want to install on their device themselves. If it turns out to be malware, that fault lies exclusively with the user. Finally, there is no indication that Google will exclude malware via the registration system, although there is a good chance that the amount of malicious APKs will indeed decrease.
According to the founders of the petition, the clear disadvantages are more important than any potential advantages: Google, as an American company, is appropriating the exclusive role of giving the green light to applications from developers. If Google designates a developer as malicious under external pressure from, for example, the American or Chinese government, it will be impossible to install (or sideload) an application from that developer.
Arguments
The Keep Android Open movement summarizes the problems for the three categories of stakeholders as follows:
- The consumer has purchased an Android device trusting Google’s promise that it was an open computer platform and that you could run any software you wanted on it. Instead, starting next year, Google will implement an update to your operating system without your permission that irrevocably blocks this right and leaves you to their judgment about which software you can trust.
- The developer can no longer develop an app and share it directly with friends, family, and community without first asking Google for approval. The promise of Android – and a marketing advantage it has used to differentiate itself from the iPhone – has always been that it is “open”. But Google clearly believes that it has sufficient control over the Android ecosystem, along with sufficient regulatory power, that it can now discard this principle without prejudice and with impunity.
- The government is ceding the rights of citizens and its own digital sovereignty to a company known for complying with the extrajudicial demands of authoritarian regimes to remove perfectly legal apps that they happen not to like. The software that is crucial to the functioning of your businesses and governments will be at the mercy of the opaque whims of a distant and unaccountable company.
Keep Android Open advises everyone to express their dissatisfaction to the competent national authorities. A list of contact details, arranged by region, should help with this. For developers, the organizers recommend not registering for the identification program, but instead sharing concerns with Google.