The "please tread on me harder" state.
this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2025
89 points (100.0% liked)
Privacy
42636 readers
434 users here now
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.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
The text of the new Texas law is here.
I wonder if this will apply to/be enforced on FDroid and Obtainium?
copying my comment from another thread:
"App store" means a publicly available Internet website, software application, or other electronic service that distributes software applications from the owner or developer of a software application to the user of a mobile device.
This sounds like it could apply not only to F-Droid but also to any website distributing APKs, and actually, every other software distribution sysem too (eg, linux distros...) which include software which could be run on a "mobile device" (the definition of which also can be read as including a laptop).
otoh i think they might have made a mistake and left a loophole; all of the requirements seem to depend on an age verification "under Section 121.021" and Section 121.021 says:
When an individual in this state creates an account with an app store, the owner of the app store shall use a commercially reasonable method of verification to verify the individual's age category
I'm not a lawyer but I don't see how this imposes any requirements on "app stores" which simply don't have any account mechanism to begin with :)
(Not to say that this isn't still immediately super harmful for the majority of the people who get their apps from Google and Apple...)
Thank you for researching that
Right, so basically they'll have a database of who has (had) what app, when, and where...
Which could include apps like Grindr (way to target the LGBT community), or like Signal (way to target Journalists, activists, and other privacy minded people). You can find out a lot about someone's app choices and in a state like Texas, which is conservative and authoritarian, that can be used to go after certain demographics.
Who is "they"? Google/Apple? Yes. But that's not really anything new. Texas? I don't think so.
Obtainium no because it's a github parser and I highly doubt they'll implement it on the downloader.
F-Droid and other non-free anpp stores sure.
Accrescent may have to leave Texas, with all that privacy/security jaff.
That works until Google will lock down the APK installer for "unverified" apps
owning them libs