Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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VLC - App stores were a mistake (archive.is)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

192 comments fedilink hide all child comments

VideoLAN @videolan App Stores were a mistake. Currently, we cannot update VLC on Windows Store, and we cannot update VLC on Android Play Store, without reducing security or dropping a lot of users... For now, iOS App Store still allows us to ship for iOS9, but until when?

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

From their Twitter:

If you wonder why we can't update the VLC on Android version, it's because Google refuses to let us update:

either we give them our private signing keys,

or we drop support for Android TV before API-30, and all our users on TV API<30 can't get fixes.

It's not much, just dozens of millions of people use Android TV before Android-11...

Maybe we should tell users to buy new TVs? #electronicWaste

I can't speak to why they're not updating on FDroid but seeing as how it's much more difficult to get people to use FDroid on Android TV, I don't think it will help them with that issue anyway.

[–] [email protected] 87 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Google requiring their private signing key is insane, and goes completely against the concept of private/public keys.

Why is Google asking for this?

[–] [email protected] 34 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

See also: NSA PRISM

Member when all the companies listed released a PR statement within 24 hours of each other, all very basic and denied allowing the NSA direct access to their users?

I member.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

Oh yeah, I remember that...

[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

C-I-A Confidentiality, Integrity, Accessibility. They don't need the keys for C or A. Only one option remains. To modify the code and pass it off as code VLC wrote or signed off on.

Likely to install malware and re-sign. Brazen identity theft.

Maybe I'm wrong, they could use VLC's private keys to gobble encrypted communications too.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

I didn't know F-droid was on Android TV, but it will be on mine pretty soon.