A custom ROM allows you to extend the life of your Android phone, but does it come with risks in 2024 and why isn't it more popular?

I am surprised that Google spends so much time tackling custom ROMs via it’s Play Integrity API. If only they paid that much attention to say, curating the Play Store more, it had be much better for everyone

  • DacoTaco@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    This is a very complex topic that is very hard to draw the line on.
    As a technical person who follows hacking and security news i can understand google introduced the api and warnings, as phones are getting hacked and unlocked bootloader or root can be abused to keep your malware going, and has been abused in the past.

    But as a user of fairphone/lineageOS, who tells google, apple, meta, … all of them to fuck off when i can, this scares me. The lockdown of devices can and is going too far. Hell, i even consider samsung’s android ui changes to be going too far, as it changes a shit ton of stuff and really is not a stock android experience. It locks users in their environment…

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      I find it funny that Google and some banks are so worried about security on Android that I have to have up to date system, app and can’t be custom ROM, can’t be rooted and whatnot. And then they’ll allow you to login to their bank from Internet Explorer on XP or some shit.

      • MasterBuilder@lemmy.oneEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        This. This, this, this, this!

        My linux computers are rooted. I can get root any time i need it and nobody is refusing to offer their sevices on linux because it is vulnerable.

        Nobody ever points out that when any app wants root, you get a dialog to ask if it can have it. If you don’t know why it’s asking, say no. It ain’t rocket science.

        Now, if you are going through customs and you don’t want them to copy your phone and read all your personal documents, that is a different situation. Lock your bootloader unrooted and encryped to the nines. Preferably use a phone with almost nothing on it.

        • Zak@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          2 months ago

          nobody is refusing to offer their sevices on linux because it is vulnerable

          That’s not quite true, though in that case it’s about the service provider being unable to verify that the user isn’t running a operating system configured or modified to work against the interests of the service provider.

          • MasterBuilder@lemmy.oneEnglish
            1·
            14 days ago

            Written with a slightly more precise wording, they know Linux users have full control of their devices, so cannot keep them from using it in ways the company does not like. In this case, fine. Go away and take someone else’s money.

            Stated from another angle, they won’t support it because they can’t hijack it for their own purposes.