XPost: comp.mobile.android, alt.comp.os.windows-11   
   From: mariasophia@comprehension.com   
      
   Siard wrote:   
   > Maria Sophia wrote:   
   >> You NEVER need a Google Account on your phone. Ever!   
   >   
   > How about paid apps? As far as I'm aware of, I need a Google account to   
   > purchase them. It's the only reason why I still have a Google account.   
      
   Ah!  I forgot about paid apps. I've never bought any, and my   
   phone does whatever I need it to do (which is a lot, mind you) w/o them.   
      
   First, this thread is NOT about payware vs freeware, as it's about privacy,   
   but I did completely forget about payware (which is as foreign to me as   
   malware is), so I do very much apologize for NOT making the statement that   
   you don't ever need a Google Account on Android to install all the free   
   apps in teh world (and, in fact, "some" payware apps become free).   
      
   If someone is already going to surrender their privacy by buying things   
   with their phone, then this PSA simply doesn't apply to them at all.   
      
   You make a good point though, that the process I described only works for   
   free software, where, let's be clear, I have over 1000 apps currently   
   installed on my Android 64GB Samsung Galaxy A32-5G, all of which are   
   freeware, and the combination of which allows me to do what I need to do.   
      
   We could ask what do you need to pay for but that's the topic of many   
   threads on the Android newsgroup already, so we won't ask that question.   
      
   It's not applicable to this discussion WHY anyone would willingly throw   
   away their privacy by purchasing an app on the Google Play Store. What is   
   applicable is most paid Android apps use Google Play Licensing (LVL) or   
   Google Play Billing to verify that we actually bought the app.   
      
   These payment systems require:   
    1. Google Play Store installed (it's not installed on my non-rooted phone)   
    2. Google Play Services active (you pretty much have to have this though)   
    3. A signed-in Google account (once you have that, your privacy is toast)   
      
   Some payware apps, one of which I personally helped the developer with to   
   understand the privacy aspect of, implement a fallback licensing mode.   
      
   For example, Skyica App Finder (which is the best APK search engine for   
   Google Play) tries to check Google Play but fails on my system because   
   there is no Play Store and no Google account. Instead of refusing to run,   
   Skyica detects the failure and gives you a link to the payware for free   
   (where the result is akin to how OSMAND+ payware is free if you download   
   OSMAND~ from outside of the Google Play Store repository).   
       
   But Skyica uses server-side licensing, which is different than most apps.   
      
   In summary, THANK YOU for pointing out that one sentence should have been   
   clarified (or maybe redacted altogether) from the PSA, as the point was   
   that you can download FREE apps without a Google Account.   
      
   It slipped my mind that people PAY for apps (but I'm sure that they do!).   
   So I apologize openly and publicly and profusely for that PSA omission!   
   --   
   Just one person paying it forward with tested steps & free tools to share.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)