Samourai Wallet has introduced that, due to the Google Play Store’s “new extremely restrictive policies,” numerous safety features are being faraway from the pockets. The builders have utilized for an exemption to the brand new guidelines, however Google has rejected their request.
Google’s New Policies
Developers of privacy-enhanced cellular BTC pockets Samourai introduced on Monday that they’ve been compelled to disable numerous safety features due to the Google Play Store’s new insurance policies. They wrote:
It is with nice unhappiness that we’re disabling the next options inside Samourai Wallet as of model 0.99.04 – which can be launched tomorrow – due to new extraordinarily restrictive insurance policies Google has determined to introduce of their effort to change into extra of a ‘walled backyard’ expertise.
The three options being disabled are referred to as “Stealth Mode,” “SIM Switch Defense,” and “Remote SMS Commands.”
Samourai detailed that they utilized for an exemption to the brand new guidelines. The self-proclaimed privateness activists defined to Google that “removing such functionality would cause users who rely on those features to be less secure and more exposed.” However, the tech large nonetheless rejected their utility.
The builders famous that Google doesn’t care about any of the safety advantages the pockets affords, including:
Samourai Wallet would have been faraway from the Google Play Store had we not complied with this dictate.
Three Hardcore Security Features Gone
The three soon-to-be lacking options have been a part of Samourai Wallet since its first launch in 2015. They are optionally available settings which can be turned off by default. According to the builders, “To this day no other wallet has enabled these types of features, and now it is very likely no other wallet will, thanks to the heavy hand of Google.”
One of the three options to be eliminated — SIM Switch Defense — Samourai described as a function that alerts “users to the fact that their SIM card was being hijacked due to extremely poor opsec by their network carrier.” It accomplishes this by stealthily sending an SMS message to a trusted cellular quantity when the cellphone’s SIM card has been modified.
Another function to be disabled is Stealth Mode which supplies customers a means to cover their pockets app from attackers who’ve bodily entry to their smartphones. Enabling the function requires granting the app entry to make undetected outgoing calls. The builders tweeted on Monday:
Many customers in South America who use this function are actually in danger, thanks to @Googleplay
The final function Google has an issue with is Remote SMS Commands which “allows users who lost their device to remotely erase their bitcoin wallet to prevent further loss of their bitcoin stash,” the pockets builders described. “@Googleplay has killed that as well.”
Bypassing Google’s Restrictions
The Samourai group mentioned that they “hope to bring these features back somehow in the future in the Google Play Store.”
Meanwhile, they count on to resume providing all options “via alternative distribution methods such as direct download and F-Droid in the coming months.” F-Droid, the most well-liked various Android app market, has fewer restrictions than the Google Play Store however its set up course of might be too sophisticated for some customers. Samourai builders additional wrote:
In the approaching months we’ll develop our distribution mannequin to embrace self-hosted APK [Android install package file] downloads and inclusion within the open supply F-Droid app retailer. These variations will all embrace the Stealth Mode, Remote SMS, and SIM Switch Defense options.
In the meantime, Samourai builders have suggested customers to disable stealth mode prior to updating to the brand new model.
What do you consider Google’s new insurance policies which power Samourai Wallet to take away these safety features? Let us know within the comments part below.
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