Rob Braxman
Science & Tech
Internet Privacy
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Live Streamed on August 28, 2025 11:00 PM ET
Google Blocking Sideloading of Apps? Effect on De-Googled Phones

Developers were recently informed by Google, including me, that signing keys are now required to be completed for all apps. That in itself isn't particularly new but Signing keys were used to validate your app with the Play store.

Now the validation will be done on device which means Google Android will "check In" with Google to verify the identity of the app and to validate the operating system.

This has obvious problems for non-Google operating systems like iODE OS, LineageOS or BraxOS.

This means you can't sideload an app from an unofficial source. But it could also be used to lock the ecosystem so we're forced to install only Google apps on approved Google OS versions.

Let's study the implications of this. Aside from sideloading apps, there are apps that come from F-Droid for example, will these be blocked as well? We'll need to study what this means.

00:08:29
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Every. Click. Tracked. Recorded.

Something very basic that the average person does not care about even if they knew about it. Your every click on a website is tracked. Every single one. How does this work? Surprisingly easy enough to understand yet apparently no one wants to explain this.

There are ways around this for the privacy conscious but the mechanics of the tracking has to be fully understood.

00:19:33
My Life is None of Your Business! Leave Me Alone!

A rant. The most irritating thing for those of us who are privacy conscious are comments like "what are you hiding?" or "as long as you follow the law who cares?" or "you're paranoid".

I'm sure I'm not alone on this. Well, if you get irritated by this, then there is nothing wrong with you. Ignore these NPCs but you also need a smart understanding of why you do need to care and why these NPCs are the ones who are wrong.

00:17:39
How I Would Do a Device Content Scan on Your F

The intent to scan content to counter end-to-end encryption is no longer theoretical with the passing of the UK Online Safety Bill.

How would the OS makers then build in client-side scanning? Let's tackle a theoretical project to do this on your favorite operating system (Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android).

This would be how I would do it.

00:17:42
July 10, 2025

@robbraxman I've been watching you for a few years, but your latest video is the best. Keep going! I am really glad we still have content creators like you!

May 20, 2025

@robbraxman Lunduke have a main page(lunduke.com) where he post links where people can follow. Maybe you should do one like this.

May 19, 2025

BLE mesh for nostr notes when the internet is down

https://github.com/KoalaSat/samiz

Available on mobile and TV devices
google store google store app store app store
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