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Yay, one more app I can't install because I want control over my own device.

I've already had to contact a few devs to be able to use paid apps because they thought that root = pirate.

You're in the minority here. The author is saying 25k unpaid/untracked downloads, which certainly the vast majority are pirated.

The attestation API can be used to detect probable root, but that's not the only thing it does. It can be used to detect if an APK is modified(and thus probably cracked) or not. There are various things you can check for and you can allow rooted phones while disallowing modified APKs.

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