Sometimes, yes, but not intrinsically. AOSP performs OS and app update authenticity verification via predistributed public keys, as do package managers. In theory, a phone’s firmware can be completely open source and still be unmodifiable. Proprietary software isn’t any more opaque or protected than open source software.
> Proprietary software isn’t any more opaque or protected than open source software.
lol. Look, in practical terms - as well as by definition - proprietary software is owned by someone else.
Sorry. I meant to write that closed source software isn’t opaque, technologically. (More opaque, yes, opaque... no.) Legally, it’s different. But closed source compilation alone doesn’t grant a program special privileges or confidentiality or non-reversibility, which is sometimes assumed. It’s just machine code or bytecode either way.