> Google is not going to let their main phone app product become associated with Grandma losing her savings!

How did they manage to survive as the grandma-account-draining brand for over 15 years, though? They're still the market leader.

One of the best arguing tactics the pro-control side has come up with is "The way it works right now is JUST not good enough". And then you don't need to argue any further or substantiate that. You just force your opponent into coming up with new measures because obviously right now we have an emergency that must be dealt with immediately. So far, this reasoning has worked for program install restrictions, de-anonymizing internet users, all sorts of other random attestation and verification measures, and it will be used for so much more.

My question to all that is - what has happened NOW that changed the situation from how it was just a couple years back?. Google hasn't been sitting idle for all these years, they've been adding measures to Android to detect malicious software and prevent app installs by clueless users - measures that were striking a balance between safety and freedom. Why is everything safety-related in the last few years suddenly an emergency that must be rectified by our corporate overlords immediately and in the most radical ways? How did we even survive the 2010s if people are less secure and more prone to being scammed with the new restrictions right now than they were back then?

I'm not saying there's not an issue, but without hard stats, these issues will always be magnified by companies as much as possible as the wedge to put in measures that benefit them in ways other than the good-natured safeguarding of the consumer. In an open society, there's always a point where you balance the ability to act freely with ensuring that the worst actors can't prosper in the environment. Only one of these things is bad, but you can't have both. You need a middle ground.