<story><title>Google agrees to pay $700M in antitrust settlement reached with states</title><url>https://apnews.com/article/google-android-play-store-apps-antitrust-settlement-e4e2f422baa846c66deac90c7866c5fd</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>koolba</author><text>&amp;gt; Eligible consumers will receive at least $2, according to the settlement, and may get additional payments based on their spending on the Play store between Aug. 16, 2016 and Sept. 30, 2023.&lt;p&gt;I bet they give it as a play store credit. How else would they actually distribute $2 to so many people without costing a huge percentage of the payout?&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Like Apple does in its iPhone app store, Google collects commissions ranging from 15% to 30% on in-app purchases — fees that state attorneys general contended drove prices higher than they would have been had there been an open market for payment processing.&lt;p&gt;The real lesson here is to not let anyone get a foot in the door of your walled garden.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Google also agreed to make other changes designed to make it even easier for consumers to download and install Android apps from other outlets besides its Play Store for the next five years. It will refrain from issuing as many security warnings, or “scare screens,” when alternative choices are being used.&lt;p&gt;The States that asked for this are idiots. The real world consequence of this won’t be improved competition. It will be grandma getting fleeced.&lt;p&gt;It’s not that it should be possible, but making it not “scary” is not a good idea for the reality we live in.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>turquoisevar</author><text>&amp;gt; It will be grandma getting fleeced.&lt;p&gt;Not just grandma. We need to move away from the idea that just a handful of digital illiterate seniors will get screwed.&lt;p&gt;Android has been the main target for malware for a while now.&lt;p&gt;Nokia’s Threat Intelligence Report in 2021[0] reported that Android makes up more than half of all the infected systems, in the recent 2023 report this had dipped to 49%[1]. But as they’ve done in prior reports, this year they again highlight that most Android malware is a trojanized version of legitimate apps distributed via alternative means:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Android based devices are not inherently insecure. However, most smartphone malware is distributed as trojanized applications and since Android users can load application from just about anywhere, it’s much easier to trick them into installing applications that are infected with malware. Android users can protect themselves by only installing applications from secure app stores like Google Play and installing a mobile anti-virus product on their device.&lt;p&gt;0: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;pages.nokia.com&amp;#x2F;T006US-Threat-Intelligence-Report-2021.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;pages.nokia.com&amp;#x2F;T006US-Threat-Intelligence-Report-20...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;1: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nokia.com&amp;#x2F;networks&amp;#x2F;security-portfolio&amp;#x2F;threat-intelligence-report&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nokia.com&amp;#x2F;networks&amp;#x2F;security-portfolio&amp;#x2F;threat-int...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Google agrees to pay $700M in antitrust settlement reached with states</title><url>https://apnews.com/article/google-android-play-store-apps-antitrust-settlement-e4e2f422baa846c66deac90c7866c5fd</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>koolba</author><text>&amp;gt; Eligible consumers will receive at least $2, according to the settlement, and may get additional payments based on their spending on the Play store between Aug. 16, 2016 and Sept. 30, 2023.&lt;p&gt;I bet they give it as a play store credit. How else would they actually distribute $2 to so many people without costing a huge percentage of the payout?&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Like Apple does in its iPhone app store, Google collects commissions ranging from 15% to 30% on in-app purchases — fees that state attorneys general contended drove prices higher than they would have been had there been an open market for payment processing.&lt;p&gt;The real lesson here is to not let anyone get a foot in the door of your walled garden.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Google also agreed to make other changes designed to make it even easier for consumers to download and install Android apps from other outlets besides its Play Store for the next five years. It will refrain from issuing as many security warnings, or “scare screens,” when alternative choices are being used.&lt;p&gt;The States that asked for this are idiots. The real world consequence of this won’t be improved competition. It will be grandma getting fleeced.&lt;p&gt;It’s not that it should be possible, but making it not “scary” is not a good idea for the reality we live in.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ehsankia</author><text>Right, I think the solution to this, which already exists, is other preinstalled stores, like Samsung or Amazon stores, by OEMs. What should probably be illegal is making deals forcing OEMs to have exclusive app store deals?&lt;p&gt;That being said, that&amp;#x27;s also a shitty situation for consumers, as having many or different app stores is confusing and just leads to the very fragmentation people have complain about on Android for a decade.&lt;p&gt;This is the real duality of the situation. On the one hand, people criticize Android for not being as cohesive an experience as iOS, but on the other hand, anything Google does to make it more cohesive will be seen as anti-competitive. Same with security.</text></comment>