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Google’s Sideloading Crackdown: Why It’s a Threat to Everyone’s Privacy and Freedom
(the.unknown-universe.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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Privacy
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If a single company has this level of control over our devices we've already lost.
Can you imagine a company like dell decided tomorrow to only allow installation from their specific vendor locked market? People would just not buy those products, you wouldn't be demanding dell let you install linux, you just buy something else.
Even if i had to use a pc that's 10+ years old, id choose that over using a new pc that can only run vendor approved software. I cant imagine anything a new devive like a phone might have that would change my mind about it.
Reality tells us people don't care. For one Apple Iphones, and most people use their phone way more then their computers.
TBH this possibility does scare me. That we could lose this freedom too on PC.
Today already, most PC come with Microsoft's secure boot keys in firmware. Microsoft signs the install keys for many Linux distros. It isn't totally locked down, b/c you can turn this off in UEFI. But most of the pieces exist. Frog and pot...
The PC platform is "open", oh yes... but when Microsoft says jump, PC mfgs ask how high. We could somday see pressure to lock down all computing, not just mobile. To protect the children, you know...
I think you're right to be scared, the only thing stopping a corp like microsoft from doing it already is the threat of facing legal sanctions, which is more of an inconvenience then a threat to a corp like microsoft.