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The key difference between "Android's Play Integrity API" and this new thing which they are no longer proposing to put in Chrome but into Android WebView instead is the remote part of "remote attestation".
The article does not make it entirely clear, but the new thing looks to be exactly the same as the old Web Environment Integrity we knew and hated, but with a new name and temporarily exclusive to Android.
I'm so glad there are devs behind things like Lineage, DivestOS and Graphene. I'm currently setting up a oh one using Divest without Google.
I'll be buying some Pixel 5's to get me through the next 5 years (my current phones are from 2018, and really fast with Lineage or Divest, and load a bunch of apps, and automation).
As someone who uses root (not at the moment but plans to) as I believe in owning my devices, fully, this is horrible. We still need to oppose this.
I know right? The article touches on this:
Google said the inspiration for the original Web Integrity project was Android's Play Integrity API, which already scans your phone for root privileges and denies access to things
^^^ this should have never, ever been a thing!
That is just standard and a completely sensible security measure for preventing people from tampering with an application. It cannot replace proper, server-side security measures but is a big step. Especially for stuff like banking applications.
The problem with root is that banking applications and many others straight up actively try to detect it and refuse to work if you are rooted. Android is in the process of being completely locked down.
Not just root. Some even detect if you have usb debugging enabled and warn or refuse to work unless you turn that off.
Switched to web browser...
These apps are fucking obnoxious.
Google wants you to pay for hardware but they get to control it because they can't trust you lol
Yep, never have a root issue if you access a baking service via a browser.
And with apps like Hermit you can make a web page very app-like.
Big fucking sigh. I've been an Android user since the T-mobile G1, and I have ferociously defended the platform against iPhone for that entire time.
Is there a 3rd option? Or do I have to learn to love the enemy? I won't be a part of the problem with privacy just because I'm too lazy to change.
Use Graphene, Lineage or DivestOS (fork of Lineage) . Graphene and Divest enable you to sandbox all Google BS if you need it, and Dos uses their own we view from Mull.
What about bank apps and nfc? Do those work or are you just out of luck if you need them on graphene or lineage?
No attestation = no Google Pay
It's not there yet but... https://www.pine64.org/pinephonepro/
I love the idea, and would be willing to be an early adopter of a linux phone... but its tough to give up application support.
I have ferociously defended the platform against iPhone
Why tho
Because Apple are: closed system, unrepairable, proprietary, refuse to adopt standards, elitist and exclusionary, and generally less flexible and customizable. They are a baby toy, they are any recent BMW, and they are jerks about it.
And somehow, that's becoming the better option over thieves and scammers with bad intentions. I may have to go with the assholes over the bastards. It doesn't feel great.
I get you, but calling iOS a toy just makes you sound childish and ignorant. I don't use apple for the same reasons, but iOS right now offers by far the most polish, mature and thought-through experience. In the meantime, Android continues to change everything on a whim every couple versions to nonsensical defaults. The UI keeps getting worse.
But I just can't stand the inability of customizing iOS. Google is strangling the platform, replacing FOSS features with Google counterparts, and if it wasn't for Samsung and maybe a few other big ones, they would probably have abandoned AOSP by now.
iOS right now offers by far the most polish, mature and thought-through experience
If you want to do it exactly as they allow you to. Everytime you try to deviate from Apples happy path there are suddenly thorns everywhere and you find yourself without any support, be it on iOS or MacOS
I should have said out of the box experience.
Use custom ROMs
Google no longer even tries to pretend not being evil.
google has been on the dark side since before "don't be evil" was even associated with the company.
The first time I heard "don't be evil" all I could think is why do you have to say it?
It's been a long time they stopped pretending.. at least 5 years.
A bit late... Something new might replace it but this experiment got killed a couple days ago already.
Google is killing off its proposal for "Web Environment Integrity API" as a new web standard, though Android phones may still have to deal with it.
That is literally the first sentence of the linked article. I think this is one of the things how it comes back.
Does Vanced really use WebView for playback (the link the article provides suggests it's used for sign-in)?
Aside from forgetting to mention Revanced which is very much alive, I have doubts about the article. It feels like the author realized his headline doesn't work anymore so came up with something plausible sounding...
Vanced and Revanced use(d) a fork of MicroG for sign-in. MicroG is a FOSS implementation of Google Play Services and other Google app APIs but with minimum tracking. It uses the website to sign in, which I imagine is rendered with WebView because the app is so small.
Yeah, I'm running LineageOS with MicroG, so I tried disabling Android System Webview as a test. ReVanced seems perfectly happy to browse/play videos (though I didn't try logging out). The only apps I have that fall over without webview seem to be eBay and Amazon, so no great loss there.
MicroG can run in background without WebView, only logging in requires the website-based GUI.
This is like, save the children war fund, or some such nonsense naming scheme.