The people fighting the Android lockdown to only Google vetted and identified paying developers, locking down your phone so you can’t run the software you want to run, have put together a pretty nice website.
And though Google says you can enable installing apps outside this requirement, look at what a pain they’re going to make it, which will prevent many from even trying. The 24 hour wait is hilarious. The premise is you as a user are too stupid and this will prevent a phishing attacker from getting you to install software.
So if you care about being able to run the software you choose on your computer, and enable developers to not be swept up in the Google’s financial extortion while providing identity documents, install F-Droid now and switch to opensource apps replacing Google’s spyware. And if you really want to free yourself, get a phone where you can unlock the bootloader and install a free and opensource version of Android, where you can be Google free or install an alternative version of the Google Play Store for a few apps. And you’ll be in control of your Android device. And worth pointing out that Google doesn’t really do a great job of vetting apps on their Play Store as many are spyware feeding data brokers, and there are malware apps uploaded that get to users as well.
Privacy enhanced opensource versions of Android are available like GrapheneOS and CalyxOS, but I’m just running LineageOS myself, which is a clean and fast opensource version of Android that supports quite a few phones compared to the privacy enhanced ones. If you travel internationally and have a more serious threat model, perhaps investigate GrapheneOS if you’re not creeped out by the main developer. Though, I’m leaning towards both GrapheneOS and CalyxOS being OCGFC, state sponsored operations myself, but make your own conclusions (see my links for my thoughts). Consequently, if I traveled internationally, I’d just carry wiped devices with OS thumb drives for live use, or quick install and restoration…
And worth noting this is part of the incremental move towards you having no control of your computer devices with agentic AI spyware and digital ID software just to get on the internet. And why you see a worldwide movement for age verification getting this movement started. And these world leaders are complicit in the trafficking of children, getting them to mutilate themselves… so don’t believe the hype they care about children.