From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android
PSA: Google recently replaced SafetyNet with Play Integrity
Why it matters to privacy.
Some tongue-in-cheek sub titles might be:
A device that cannot say "no" to Google does not belong to you.
If you aren't seeing Play login prompts, your phone is ratting you out.
Convenience is the bait; telemetry is the trap.
Security is the masquerade; your data is what's being collected.
The absence of an error message is the proof of a surveillance act.
A green light from Google means your handcuffs are properly locked.
The app isn't verifying your hardware; it's auditing Google compliance.
Q: What's going on?
A: There is a newly added hidden handshake happening every time you
open a modern app. If you use a standard setup, it happens so fast
you never notice it. But if you try to use your phone anonymously,
that handshake fails, the app freezes, and Google demands a login.
Here is the ugly reality behind why that is happening, as far as I know.
Please add value and please help to correct anywhere I may err or omit.
*The fundamental privacy flaw here is the telemetry payload itself.*
During the background handshake, Google's servers generate an encrypted
token that permanently binds the unique hardware signature of the physical device directly to a specific, personal Google account identity.
It is a real-time tracking mechanism masquerading as a security feature.
When a mainstream user launches an app, their phone silently broadcasts
this hardware-to-identity link over the network. If a privacy-conscious
user blocks this tracking by removing the Google account, the telemetry broadcast sends a blank field, the app back end panics because it cannot
log the user's identity, and the software immediately halts.
How do I know this?
Because my phone is set up without a Google account and I've been getting
these checks. So has everyone whose phone is similarly set up as private.
Many app developers switched to Google Play Integrity recently.
Not because app developers wanted it, but because Google forced them to.
Google deprecated the old SafetyNet APIs.
Hence, many newly updated or installed apps now immediately perform a
Google Play Integrity check the moment they're opened.
Given that, many apps will refuse to run unless Google's servers verify
that a valid Google Play account is present and logged into the device.
If the phone has no Google account set up, which is by design for privacy,
the app immediately halts and demands a Google Play login. This is a prompt that seemingly cannot be satisfied without breaking the privacy model.
Mainstream users whose phones are not set up for privacy will likely never
see this prompt. Their devices quietly satisfy Google's account-tethering
check automatically in the background. It's a proof they have no privacy.
This app shows a passing status for my phone, but, many apps still fail.
<
https://github.com/1nikolas/play-integrity-checker-app>
<
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gr.nikolasspyr.integritycheck>
To understand why an app can fail even when open-source integrity checkers
show a passing status, we need to delve deeper into how Google separates
Play Integrity data into two completely distinct lists.
A. The device-profile list
B. The macro-enforcement list
The device-profile list is what open-source GitHub checkers measure.
the macro-enforcement list is what consumer apps usually evaluate.
A. The device-profile list
1. MEETS_BASIC_INTEGRITY: Basic emulator checks.
2. MEETS_DEVICE_INTEGRITY: Hardware certification
3. MEETS_STRONG_INTEGRITY: Hardware-backed cryptographic keys.
B. The macro-enforcement list
1. Device Integrity:
The structural profile verified in List A.
2. App Integrity:
Verification that the binary matches the official store version.
3. Account Licensing:
Verification that a valid Google account is active on the device
and that valid Google account holds a license for the app.
During this background handshake, Google's servers generate a token that
binds the unique hardware signature of the physical device directly to a personal Google account identity.
If that account link is missing, the software halts.
The ability to bypass this privacy-destroying API with tricks like "adb
install -i com.android.vending" boils down to how lazily an individual app developer incorporated these newly required Google security checks.
Instead of writing complex code to verify the actual server-side token from Google, lazy developers simply ask the local Android operating system who installed the app. The ADB command forces the operating system to report
that the Google Play Store was the installer. The app accepts this local metadata response and skips the deep account verification check entirely.
To see if your own phone is silently broadcasting your identity to pass
these tests, ask yourself this related but fundamental question:
Q: When was the last time a newly installed app forced you to sign into
a google play account just for that app to launch successfully?
A: ?
--
A device that cannot say "no" to Google does not belong to you.
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