Devices that run on Android – a platform that supports sideloading – have an estimated 15 to 47 times more infections from malware than iPhone, according to Nokia’s “Threat Intelligence Reports 2019 and 2020.”
Apple “Building a Trusted Ecosystem for Millions of Apps: A threat analysis of sideloading”:
Supporting sideloading through direct downloads and third-party app stores would cripple the privacy and security protections that have made iPhone so secure, and expose users to serious security risks.
Over the past four years, Android devices were found to have 15 to 47 times more malware infections than iPhone. Nearly 6 million attacks per month were detected by a large security firm on its clients’ Android mobile devices.
Even users who don’t want to sideload and prefer to download apps only from the App Store would be harmed if sideloading were supported.
• Users could be forced to sideload an app they need for work or school. Users also may have no choice other than sideloading an app that they need to connect with family and friends because the app is not made available on the App Store. For example, if sideloading were permitted, some companies may choose to distribute their apps solely outside of the App Store.
• Cybercriminals may trick users into sideloading apps by mimicking the appearance of the App Store, or by touting free or expanded access to services or exclusive features.
A study found that 98 percent of mobile malware targets Android devices (PurpleSec, “2021 Cyber Security Statistics: The Ultimate List Of Stats, Data & Trends,” 2021.).
“Users should avoid (and enterprises should prohibit on their devices) sideloading of apps and the use of unauthorized app stores.” — Department of Homeland Security (United States)
MacDailyNews Take: As ZDNet’s Adrian Kingsley-Hughes wrote back in 2014: Android is a toxic hellstew of vulnerabilities.
If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone.
See also: It’s so easy to switch to iPhone.
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Just ask anyone in Australia who’s been getting the Flubot messages. My carrier Telstra said there’s nothing they can do because it’s Malware on the shitbox Android phones causing it. Mind blowing how bad their ecosystem is & the muppets defend it as “open”
Tim Cook infected with infantile Marxist social justice drivel 100 times more often than a good CEO.
Found another right wing troll! You know we don’t care what you think right?
Found another communist above, who will be a useful idiot killed by the tyrants he helps put into power. There is the silver lining. J evaporated.
Nope. Sorry Kent. I am not a communist. Centre left, if you must know. But I find it funny how the right wing have send their troops to target this, and other Apple centric sites, because of their outrage at how progressive Apple is. The US is more and more moving towards being a progressive country and the right wing know this. They can’t win elections based on policy and thus have to resort to gerrymandering and restricting the vote to win anything along with the pathetic (and dangerous) claims of voting fraud
that don’t actually exist. It’s sad really.
To Apple aficionado’s, our collective response is ‘duh’!
It’s only a matter of time before governments around the world start dictating what kinds of software experiences Apple can offer to its users. Unfortunately, there is no non-profit defending users like the “Coalition for App Fairness” defends shit developers. So they pay off reps like Cicilline and Buck and Jayapal and the users will sooner or later be forced to make all kinds of stupid decisions they never asked for (which app stores to download, which apps to sideload, which clock app they want, etc.).
No one wants this except unhappy developers who want to break the streamlined ecosystem consumers have been buying into for years.
Oh for the Daze of Jobs For Christ Sake! + Get to WORK PEOPLE! What a travesty. FU EPIC .!.. what a SkullFck. CRT MY ASS!
What fearmongering poppy-cock!!!!
It is amazing how short-sighted this whole discussion is. Though it is absolutely true that having apps stores screening apps provides a layer of protection, it is a nanny-state type approach to PREVENT loading of other apps if the user so chooses. This whole thing is one big red herring!!!
Because smartphones have become the predominant way that users access data online, people seem to have forgotten, or maybe never experienced, that users download apps from the internet onto their laptops and desktops ALL THE TIME….
Using the term “side-loading” gives the whole topic a nefarious feel when in fact this has been a practice that has been around since the beginning of online access by computers…in other words, FOR DECADES.
“• Users could be forced to sideload an app they need for work or school. Users also may have no choice other than sideloading an app that they need to connect with family and friends because the app is not made available on the App Store. For example, if sideloading were permitted, some companies may choose to distribute their apps solely outside of the App Store.”
SO WHAT!
So let’s stop spreading the fearmongering and treating people like kids and instead educate them… getting anything online is subject to risk, especially if it is from an unknown or untrusted source. Treat people like adults and stop limiting their options.
Yes, Apple should NOT have this strangle-hold on people’s devices. PERIOD!
Don’t like it, buy an Android phone. PERIOD.
Typical ignorant comment when one does not want to argue the issues but rather chooses to shut down intelligent discussion.
P.S. Not that it matters but I have both types of phones
ANd how exactly has jailbreaking hurt anyone who objects to shopping outside the Apple Store?
A lame attempt by Apple to keep the status quo.
Do any of these report you to the FBI or is that only Apple’s iOS 15 malware?