this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2026
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Technology
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I don't agree that tech companies need to put up walled gardens to protect people from themselves, but 'what scams' is insanely disingenuous. Obviously the scams where people, usually elderly, are walked through the process of enabling third party apps so the scammer, posing as a bank or other trusted institution, can then install malicious apps. If you've really never heard of that then I think you need to step outside of your bubble a bit more.
Ive heard plenty of examples of elderly people getting conned into buying ITunes gift cards to pay their "delinquent taxes" but I find the thought of trying to explain the process of activating developer mode, navigating to some shady website, downloading an apk, finding the download folder, and then installing some bootleg app to a confused elderly person, over the phone on the very device they want you to do this on to be quite comical. I can't see many of these people completing even step one of that process.
I'm sure there are malicious apps to sideload out there, but those are also all over the PlayStore too, so I don't see what this change really fixes.
all they have to do now is press a single link to install a scam apk.