Hacker News Reader

Comment by raw_anon_1111 | Hacker News Reader

Yes because technically literate users shouldn’t have trusted mainstream companies to not install bundle ware back in the Day? They shouldn’t have trusted Zoom not to install a web server on Macs surreptitiously that caused a vulnerability? They shouldn’t have searched Google for printer drivers not knowing that it was a fake printer driver? They shouldn’t have trusted Facebook when they installed VPN software that tracked all of their traffic from any app?

Is that really your answer? To make the phone ecosystem as fraught as Windows PCs for the average user? How is they worked out for PC users since the 80s?

View on HN

How is they worked out for PC users since the 80s?

Just to be clear, are you claiming that we would be better off if PC hardware and OS vendors had the level of control that smartphone vendors do today?

For almost every user - yes. If apps had to run in a strict sandbox it would be better for most users. Where it would make you jump through an incredible number of hoops or even install “developer editions” of operating systems.

You really can’t trust developers to do the right thing - even major developers like Zoom (the secret web server) , Facebook (the VPN that trashed usage actoss apps on iOS) and Google (convincing consumers to install corporate certificates to track usages on iOS).

Even more to the point, you read about some app installed outside of the Google Play store that’s malware - including the official side loaded version of FortNite…

https://blog.checkpoint.com/research/fortnite-vulnerability-...

I appreciate your response even though I strongly disagree.

You really can’t trust developers to do the right thing

Indeed not, and that includes OS developers. Imagine if Microsoft had been able to block web browsers other than IE in the name of "security".

Well, you have to trust the operating system vendor.

In this case, I’ll much rather trust F-Droid maintainers than Google.

Technically illiterate users should leave the default security settings enabled.

In the modern day, I actually think this mostly works? Are you aware of instances where normies installed Windows malware because they purposefully disabled Windows Defender?

Everyone always talks about the "Dancing Bunnies Problem" but I'm not convinced it's actually a thing.

You mean like all of the ransomware that is being reported on a monthly basis? My mom looked for a printer driver by searching on Google and installed some type of crap that wasn’t the official driver. She is 80. But she has actively been using computers since we had an Apple //e in the house in 1986.

On the Mac, people installed Zoom and it installed a backdoor web server.

Please install an ad blocker on your mom's computer, if you haven't already. Not every fake driver etc gets blocked by an ad blocker, but the majority do.

The fake printer driver came up in the organic results…

I'm explicitly only talking about ransomware that requires disabling Windows Defender.

The default security settings only got to be the way they are after more than a decade of exploited windows xp machines breaking the whole internet.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com