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Google is using the boiling frog method to exclude power users and custom ROMS from android.
A new feature in Android 8.0 Oreo, called "Rollback Protection" and included in the "Verified Boot" changes, will prevent a device from booting should it be rolled back to an earlier firmware. The detailed information is here.
As it rejects an image if its "rollback index" is inferior than the one in "tamper evident storage", any attempts to install a previous version of the official, signed ROM will make the device unbootable. Much like iOS (without the rollback grace period) or the extinct Lumias. It is explained in the recommended boot workflow and notes below, together with some other "smart" ideas.
Now, this might seem like a good idea at first, but let's just just imagine this on a PC. It would mean no easy roll back from windows 10 to 7 after a forced installation, and doing that or installing linux would mean a unreasonably complex bootloader unlocking, with all your data wiped. Add safetynet to the mix, and you would also be blocked from watching netflix or accessing your banking sites if you dared to install linux or rollback windows.
To add insult to injury, unlocked devices will stop booting for at least 10 seconds to show some paternalist message on how unlocking is bad for your health - "If the device has a screen and buttons (for example if it's a phone) the warning is to be shown for at least 10 seconds before the boot process continues."
Now, and knowing that most if not all android bootloaders have vulnerabilities/backdoors, how can this be defended, even with the "security/think of the children" approach? This has no advantages other than making it hard for users to install ROMs or to revert to a previous official ROM to restore missing functionality.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Wednesday September 06 2017, @09:11PM (1 child)
You have your answer. The burner phone gets you reasonable anonymity assuming you asked a homeless person or some kid to get it with cash. Avoid all the video surveillance. I recommend buying more than one a time.
Aside from that, you have Purism attempting to bring a fully free phone to market based on bona fide Linux running under the hood. Additionally, they have a mostly free laptop already. If that's not available, a small SoC that you can at least control with our own operating system you could connect up to the burner phone and use the networking connection.
In all seriousness though, Internet is widely available via wireless in businesses, restaurants, cafes, personal residences, airports, etc. Instead of thinking, "I need a mobile phone", it's more, "I need access to the Internet". Funny enough, if you tailgate most buses they have free wifi onboard and the passphrase s are written on the windows.
It's all about Internet access at this point. Mobile is only really useful at this point in areas that don't have ubiquitous wifi coverage.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Thursday September 07 2017, @09:08AM
I hadn't heard about Purism before, so I checked out their website — and I couldn't help thinking that "security for everyone" is an odd motto for a company that only sells expensive high-end hardware. :-/