Here's the interview with the quote in question: https://archive.org/details/LundukeHourApril14RMS. $50k is a serious amount but it won't make me or break me. The problem is likely elsewhere. The first one is also installable from Google Play with a different package name however : I once tried to get my app in F-Droid, but they refused, because they did not want to install the dependencies because the dependencies were too big. You’re right. I also didn't want to risk getting banned by Apple for an offence like distributing malware. I ignored the request, and reported the approach to Apple, as I'm sure that this actor has been doing the same for many other apps. If you download something that is free then that pressure doesn't exist. How are they going to do this without generating more criticism? The early adopters. It subscribes to the principles of elegantly simple user interface design and enables users to produce Address Labels, Inventory Tags, Price Labels, and Business Name Cards quickly and easily. Neither of the 2 scenarios you describe are even remotely what's happened here. If the buyer would walk away if I didn't agree to a more silent sale then I wouldn't touch it. There’s always more things you can do to a product to improve it for its users. Ubuntu? Such mechanisms have already existed and never needed OS-level sanction. way", Broken in a "half the apps out there need to be rebuilt with a new SDK version and/or deprecated or there'll be obvious bugs" way, I wouldn't accept it to sneak the change in, but I'd probably be. Don’t be naive, the majority will accept the money and gladly. I wish someone with more knowledge and experience could give others and me the good oil on this. I'm having a harder time figuring out when the barcode scanner was added, but my phone does it automatically in the camera app now. https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_redmi_note_9_pro-10217.php. AdBlock Plus is owned by a company who is selling ads. Probably the people responsible for the malware barcode scanner have other scanner apps in the game and trying to prevent user from their app from installing the Foss app and live happily ever after. One day, I updated the app and all my local data was uploaded to the cloud. To be more precise: You can pay them to get your ads listed as "acceptable ads" which will then pass the filter rules of ABP. Be on the lookout for Krispy Kreme's dozen original glazed donuts for just $5.99. How many authenticator apps do you have to use in parallel to mitigate this risk of a single point of failure? it asks developer to submit their code which gets compiled by the F-Droid team. Is it to keep the illusion the app-store is a vibrant market place where tons of developers get rich? A while back, I was approached by a [NATION OBFUSCATED] developer, asking to buy up one of my older apps (they are all open-source). Ever heard of the phrase "the end doesn't justify the means"? - auth app, If you have to go into a special QR mode (which a lot of cameras did), you’re never going to use the feature, and it’s hard to break those mental models if the feature gets silently added in later iterations; you’re always going to remember that first encounter where something didn’t work seamlessly. This would effectively price out the scammers. I'm glad NZ chose to develop the app the right way, but I certainly wouldn't expect any American government to do that. It displays full-screen HD images and it takes a touch of button to see a sophisticated product selection menu. Imagine an authenticator app ending service to all their users in such a scheme and how you will be cut out from all your accounts by this. I mean, you already have a service to get a picture, a file and a contact, among others (you don't need to include all the code, simply do a call to the respective intent and wait for the result) so why don't extend this with the qr too? I wouldn't accept it to sneak the change in, but I'd probably be perfectly willing to take their hand off and sell rights to the product. F-Droid is a community project with a framework that allows for disclosing user hostile behavior in apps. I wish the browser vendors supported some kind of pinning to source code for open source extensions. Anything obviously phoning home or popping up full screen ads would instantly blow your cover, wasting the whole effort you put into it. The tin foil hatters like you can take extra measures I’m sure. "is there a CVE" is not a question that regular people can, will, or in my opinion even. It takes a while for OEM's to catch up as well. The security implications are abstract. > I wish the browser vendors supported some kind of pinning to source code for open source extensions. Also if you were slow updating, you could avoid critical security patches (and many people did). They then "update" the app, with a little "extra flavoring.". Then I don't need a new version. It would be very simple to have an app that links to Chrome. Minimalism and simplicity rules the app, making it packed with rich advanced features. I don't like needing to trust any corp. agreed, I lived through those times, TCP/IP was not a thing, until it was. This is useful if you like to encode a single barcode to be pasted on your brochure or product items. Manipulating the search results so blatantly? The Encoder supports all parameters as described in … Facebook and google already know where they are and they are far more malicious than the AU or NZ government. Different people have different needs and making every should have been feature visible ends up making every other feature less visible. >you can trust them not to install a malware that swipes your bitcoins. When I went to click my usual “schedule payment” button on a bill payment, it just said “Coming Soon”. Believe it or not but not everybody believes that human rights like privacy are always optional when lives are at stake. That is the usual argument, but I don't see how it stands up to scrutiny. They used to work with infrared. ConnectCode's DataMatrix barcode font package comes bundled with a Font Encoder that allows you to encode the barcode quickly and easily. We should open the market for TCP implementations. This is mostly an issue for apps done by individual developers who have huge incentive to take these deals, like the barcode scanner in question. I agree it's unrealistic, but I think Stallman and many others like him would rather forego the benefits of a bluetooth remote than embrace the status quo. In some cases, we will replace or repair it. :D. The key to understanding the browser case is that, as MS wanted it, it would have tied client and server and rich application development together, all of which would have necessitated Windows. One of Google's featured reviews for ZXing is a one star review from someone who said they started getting popup ads, and looked up the issue on a web forum which said it was ZXing's fault. Is millions of vulnerable devices better than giving vendors of some software the ability to remotely patch their software? He is smart enough to recognize most users aren't going to be technically competent. This can have a big impact for end users. If you know about it, you can start "Google lens" app, but that app does not even come up as a suggestion when you type QR scanner into the play store. You can turn it off, but you have to dig in settings. Most apps never need to be updated, problem solved. Most claims approved within minutes. I'd rather have Google having stricter rules when it comes to malware. I haven't had this issue with Camscanner, but I've had it with other apps. the platform should accept the criticism, because it doesn't hurt them. Because New Zealand has elimination contact tracing is something done by a handful of experts. The status quo is anti-competitive and stifles innovation! Traditionally, when someone deliberately does something that causes significant harm to someone else, we address that by giving them a chance to defend their actions in court and if their defence is not acceptable we penalise them. Fear of anti-competition lawsuits and complaints. They maintain a list of these anti features for all apps. But, fortunately, the glazed donuts are incredibly delicious! Do you really want to do anything that looks like abuse with your Google account though? The New Zealand government doesn't learn "all your whereabouts" by default. People would be going to jail. Why was that ever a good idea in the first place? And also the platform for content creators and developers and businesses. Just one, together with alternative forms of 2 factor auth, such as a Yubikey (U2F token) or printed backup codes. Both recommended apps use the ZXing library. I have inspected code of at least one popular "privacy" app that absolutely tracks its users out in the open (I mean, the code is right there on GitHub), yet I see repeatedly that app (and F-Droid) being touted as some elixir that fixes security and privacy for one and all. Platform providers are also criticized when natively offering features that apps offer. –Edgar (CTO - Record Guardian Inc.), The font allows for the barcode to be consistantly sized and placed regardless of what data the initial page of the document uses to generate its code. To deny that would be to deny tons of security-related CVEs. Apple has the benefit of top-down control and some amount of market incentive to get it right. This is possibly tied to the recent assault on the ZXing Barcode scanner app[1]. I recently noticed that the "Barcode Scanner" app by ZXing (. Bluetooth stack is in the tens of thousands of lines range. Same for Authenticator or any other app which does things locally. Turns out you cannot compile something without dependencies. In 3 or 4 years (my usual device lifetime) many non updated apps is no longer supported at newer os version. IDAutomation Barcode Label Software is an advanced, easy-to-use, WYSIWYG barcode label printing software application used for printing barcodes, text and graphics on standard laser or inkjet printers, in addition to labels on thermal transfer barcode printers. Not everyone wants to use more spying software. No, he's talking about all auto updates. If you use the Google Lens feature it will decode barcodes and QR codes. We are talking about updating. What I told was comparative. It's entirely expected / appropriate.... but there it is the top review. Which means we need to know where you are. Thank you! Yes, open source software is easier to audit, but does nothing to a) make those audits actually happen (frequently enough), nor b) improves the quality of those audits. For that reason, I have five different QR scanners installed including SecScanQR that you've mentioned and the one with the same namesake as mentioned in this Malwarebytes article. And a lot of reputable software companies have sold out to peddling adware. It's unrealistic, sure, but it sounds nice right about now. Additionally, the App usually connects to a pretty limited set of servers, and is not publicly reachable. During initial iOS 14 setup it has a screen telling you it's turning autoupdates on, but you're not allowed to opt out there. There's no absolute guarantee that F-Droid apps are malware-free but they have at least been looked at by a competent team of humans, something that is not true of the Play Store. Heh. When people don't know why Google banned their 15 year accounts I wonder if it's not from innocent stuff like this. ...or because it doesn't justify its right to be there. Of course, I get that F-Droid is run by volunteers, but I hope no one is spreading the notion that the F-Droid apps are magically uber secure and private or anything. - barcode scanner, You still need to be able to trace malicious code to actual individuals. So for me if you have a security patch for your sw i will apply it. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.zxi... https://f-droid.org/en/docs/FAQ_-_General/#whats-the-differe... https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/1/22261178/robinhood-google-... https://github.com/zxing/zxing/issues/1345.