this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2026
97 points (100.0% liked)

Privacy

5276 readers
588 users here now

Welcome! This is a community for all those who are interested in protecting their privacy.

Rules

PS: Don't be a smartass and try to game the system, we'll know if you're breaking the rules when we see it!

  1. Be civil and no prejudice
  2. Don't promote big-tech software
  3. No apathy and defeatism for privacy (i.e. "They already have my data, why bother?")
  4. No reposting of news that was already posted
  5. No crypto, blockchain, NFTs
  6. No Xitter links (if absolutely necessary, use xcancel)

Related communities:

Some of these are only vaguely related, but great communities.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

With the upcoming changes to how Google handle's app verification, the future of the android ecosystem looks pretty grim.

While there are calls to petition and protest, it is long past time to take our phones out of the hands of google and into the community.

With the mass tech layoffs, the ai storm taking jobs,etc, there are more than enough skilled devs with free time to make this happen. We as the community need to support them financially.

Please help spread the message in your various channels. If you're technically capable enough, start the process!

https://keepandroidopen.org/open-letter/

https://f-droid.org/en/2026/02/24/open-letter-opposing-developer-verification.html

top 24 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] PiraHxCx@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (2 children)

Petitions and shit would only have any meaning if the decisions were based on ethicand public interest, but it's all money and power, so the only petition and open letters worth signing are those just saying fuck google and the human garbage running it

[–] XLE@piefed.social 14 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Petitions are one tool in a much wider toolkit. As long as they're even somewhat effective, I don't see it reason not to utilize them.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 0 points 16 hours ago

A code repository

[–] VanillaWasp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

exactly that's why actions speak louder in these cases.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social -2 points 16 hours ago
[–] iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world 8 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

What process? It's all closed source drivers by Qualcomm et al.

[–] VanillaWasp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

Lets not act like this is an impossible task.

There is a process and actually multiple ways to accomplish this. Looking into, we might not even need to fork android, but just support existing alternatives.

I would think the first step is to fork the Android Open Source Project. use that as a base, start cutting out any links to google, fill in the gaps, etc. This is obviously not my realm of expertise but there is a path.

"170,000 tech workers lost their jobs in the U.S. in the 18 months prior to mid-2025"

Don't tell me we can't scrape together a team of experts and make this happen. Yes there will be barriers and push-back, but its either this or we just keep deepthroating google.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/the-fairphone-2-hits-five-years-of-updates-with-some-help-from-lineageos/

https://itsfoss.com/linux-phones/

[–] XLE@piefed.social 8 points 16 hours ago

Thank goodness for existing Android forks (which persist even now), and for projects like the Mecha Comet.

[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 16 hours ago

I mean, that's great from a moral standpoint, but forking android will not also switch the billions of devices running it. The real problem is escaping or changing it at scale

[–] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 5 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

Wouldn't funding MicroG be the better call to action?

AFAIK this restriction will be part of Google Play certification and not AOSP itself.

That means we'd need the ability to unlock bootloaders to be maintained, and a good comparable open source abtraction to Google Play Services so users have a soft off-ramp from the Google Play ecosystem

[–] lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 14 hours ago

Technically the correct first thing to do is to make the manufacturers release the relock keys for relocking the bootloaders of extant hardware (say, the Moto G6 for an example). Having MicroG or whatever is not much useful if there's not going to be a feasible phone on which to install, so getting extant phones to become relockable with AOSP distros would be priority. And the way the economy si going and the RAM chips are not, forcing everyone interested to have to buy a whole new phone is not a smart choice.

Once the relock keys are out, fund All the Things. Lineage, Calyx, MicroG, what have you.

[–] solrize@lemmy.ml 3 points 15 hours ago

You'd need phone vendors going along with it. Good luck with that.

[–] Ilixtze@lemmy.ml 2 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Does anyone know if Huawei phones will be affected as well?

[–] Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Here is the list of brands that it will affect. For the West, it's pretty much everything.

https://www.android.com/certified/partners/

[–] SpacePanda@mander.xyz 1 points 10 hours ago

😔 Thank you for the list but yeah basically all of them.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social -4 points 16 hours ago

Not that’ll it impact you. No.