The countdown has begun. Sometime next month, Google will require verified ID, address and phone number (blood type, medical history, penis/bra size) in order to get apps from the PlayStore. What fun! I can't wait.
If there was ever a time to boycott something, it is now.
Many years ago I had an iPad, an Apple account and everything that I downloaded or used was meticulously tracked. They knew what I was doing and what I was saying, what kind of things I liked and what kind of things I didn't like. I dealt with that and accepted it.
Lucky for me, I found out that the Operating System made it difficult to move files from one place to another on the same device.
If I had written a really nice piece inside a journaling program, then I wanted to open it with a word processor, I could not do that. Each app, it seems, had its own little hard drive and none of them were accessible by the other apps on the same device. I had to email myself in order to get access to one text that I wanted to use with the other app. I thought I had missed something, but after asking Apple advocates, they said, "No, that is the way it is."
Good-bye Apple
Besides all of that and the fact that nothing was free or private, I had moved over to Android at that point. I do not buy any apps on Android store because I do not want my name or banking information listed somewhere on their database. I have donated to companies that have extremely good apps but I donate using digital currencies.
You probably won't hear this on CNN or ABC or NBC. But within the next 30 days or so, Google is going to require your confirmed identity in order to get apps from the Play Store. I wonder if children will be required to take selfies and rotate their heads in a circular fashion.
This is a huge change in practice from huge companies that already know way too much about each person who complies with their policies.
My response is that companies will need to make their
APK (app files) available on their sites or lose me as a user.
Most companies with their salt will offer an APK download on their websites. This is my preferred method, because it's better to get a clean app from the exact maker, than having the program go through Google's hands. Google usually adulterates programs that go to their Play Store. Yes, they make certain apps less usable if they are downloaded from the Play Store, especially if the app competes with Google in some way. See below and try it for yourself.
Take Newpipe, for example. It is a YouTube knockoff which is free and has 10 times more features than YouTube does. If you download the program from the Play Store, it will work for about a week and then it will start throwing errors. But if you download Newpipe from the FDroid store, it will run perfectly for months between updates.
Every few weeks we hear of another company that has gone and lost control of your private data. That has not happened to me because my data is not on anyone's database. But the point is that our data is far too vulnerable in the hands of companies like facebook, google, and banks in general.
When companies start caring about data breaches, then maybe I will put some of my data into their files because they have found a way to care for it. But, I don't see any companies doing that.
Take some time to back up all your current apps in APK format so that you can restore them in case your phone is stolen or broken. Apps, and obtaining them has just gone full Nazi.
You have been warned.
