Post #4253139

2026-07-30 20:56 UTC

@modem_down@thebrainbin.org @fdroid F-Droid in a recent blog post is fearmongering by calling an upcoming Android anti-feature "trojan horse... malware". I also disagree with what Google is doing, but claiming that users' phones are "infected" with a "virus" when they aren't is extremely harmful.

Replies (1)

@modem_down@thebrainbin.org 2026-07-30 21:17

@noahraketic@infosec.exchange Thanks. I looked it up. I guess you mean What We Talk About When We Talk About Malware. To me, it seems fair. Google is demanding that Android developers contractually undertake to never distribute "malware or other harmful applications", without defining what those terms mean: With the absence of any formal definition, standard, or guideline, it implicitly states: …and “malware” means whatever we say it means. The F-droid post points out that ADV, Google's new Android component, acts against the interests of users and developers. In this sense, it meets Google's intentionally vague definition of malware. Moreover, users were effectively tricked into installing it without informed consent, in the guise of an ordinary update. In this sense, it was distributed like a Trojan horse.

Open ##4254047