Starting next year, Google is planning to acquire complete control over app installation on all Android devices. They'll do this by introducing mandatory "developer verification", where every Android app must be signed by a developer key that is whitelisted by Google.

Getting whitelisted will require handing over government ID documents and paying Google for this privilege.

This is of course being marketed as the usual "keeping users safe" nonsense. The reality is that Google will now be able to remotely disable any app on any device, for whatever reason.

I am sure I don't have to elaborate on the quite horrible implications this has.

If you are at all concerned about something like this, please act now. There is still a slight chance that we can overturn this, but if they succeed, it will be an unrecoverable blow to free and open communication and compute.

To see how you can help prevent this, go to:

keepandroidopen.org/