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Is it possible to allow sideloading and keep users safe?

(shkspr.mobi)
205 points ColinWright | 3 comments | 30 Aug 25 12:03 UTC | HN request time: 0.612s | source
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Scarblac ◴[31 Aug 25 08:08 UTC] No.45081381[source]▶
Is it possible to let owners use their hardware as they wish, without having large companies control what they deem "safe"?

I'm not the user of my phone, I'm its owner.

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lblume ◴[31 Aug 25 08:14 UTC] No.45081410[source]▶
Sure. But the societal losses of a vast amount of people getting scammed might in general be more important your individual wish for freedom to run anything you want on your device. I think there are important tradeoffs to be made, and that we have to acknowledge that many people in society less technically skilled might suffer from serious consequences in your proposed model of computation.
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1. kikonen ◴[31 Aug 25 08:22 UTC] No.45081452[source]▶
People get scammed over phonecalls all the time and we're not opening up for debate my freedom to accept calls from unknown users. Because why would you? Doing that is like using a nuke to kill a fly.

This reeks as a powergrab that restricts my freedom disguised with the classic "for the greater good". Same as the new UK age verification laws

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2. mike_hearn ◴[31 Aug 25 10:04 UTC] No.45081955[source]▶
> we're not opening up for debate my freedom to accept calls from unknown users

That debate was had already and was lost. Phone scammers get blocked by telcos all the time.

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3. kikonen ◴[01 Sep 25 07:54 UTC] No.45090533[source]▶
I guess the analogy is not perfect since when making a phone call you're using the network (which you're "renting"). In that sense the callers are blocked from using that network, which makes sense (this would be equiv from being banned from uploading malicious apk to an app store I guess)

What I am saying is that I have not been stopped from taking calls from unknown numbers just because the call might be a scam. Likewise I don't wanna be stopped from installing an apk just because it might be a scam.