Google’s New Sideloading Ban Proves You Don’t Own Your Phone
Big Tech’s mask has slipped again. Google just announced that starting in 2026, sideloading apps on Android will be restricted to “verified developers” only.
By 2027, this new policy will roll out worldwide.
Translation: your Android phone won’t be yours anymore.
Sure, you’ll still be allowed to sideload, but only after you hand over your government ID, personal details, and signing keys. Hobbyists get a “lite” version, but the effect is the same. To install software on hardware you bought, you’ll have to show your papers.
That policy bears no relation to any concept of ownership. And let’s not overlook the obvious shakedown. Your personal information is just that: data which you generate. That means it’s your intellectual property. By holding a device you already purchased hostage, pending you surrendering your IP without compensation, Alphabet is engaging in plain old theft.
Related: Amazon Ends Kindle Sideloading
The excuse is predictable: malware. Google claims sideloaded apps are 50 times more likely to harbor malicious code. Cue the “Think of the children!” and “Protect grandma’s bank account” lines.
But even Google insiders admit they already have permissions in place that could neutralize most malware. They just don’t enable them for users, because the bigger threat to their business model is people blocking ads.
If your safety measures are designed to keep users locked into monetized behavior while exposing them to other risks, you’re not protecting them. What you’re protecting are your revenue streams.
The debate on Hacker News cut to the heart of it:
“Every day we stray farther from the premise that we should be allowed to install/modify software on the computers we own.”
“The question really isn't whether we should be able to modify computers we own, it's whether we own them at all.”
That’s the truth. Your Android phone isn’t really open, and your iPhone was never yours in the first place. You’re renting access to a walled garden with a key held by Alphabet or Apple.
If you can’t install what you want, if you’re denied the right to modify your own device without begging permission; if your ownership is contingent on corporate policy changes, then you don’t own it. You’re a tenant of Big Tech rent seekers, simple as.
Related: Amazon vs WarGate: 3 Times Is Enemy Action
Readers here will notice the same pattern we saw with Amazon when they killed Kindle sideloading:
Lure you in with convenience
normalize restrictions
revoke your ability to own anything outright.
Ebooks, video games, and now digital devices have all been placed under centralized control.
That’s not incompetence, it’s malice.
Here’s the good news: Users are catching on. The backlash to this announcement was immediate and widespread. Independent developers are already looking at alternatives like de-Googled Android forks, third-party app stores, and open hardware.
That’s a real white pill. Because every overreach by Big Tech drives more people toward authentic ownership and independent creation.
If you think about it, that’s the same reason why newpub books are outpacing oldpub, and why a three-man studio in Adelaide can crash Steam and Nintendo’s servers with an indie game release.
Big Tech’s trap only works if we keep walking into it. And more of us are learning to walk away.
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Brian Niemeier is a best-selling novelist, editor, and Dragon Award winner with over a decade in newpub. For direct, in-person writing and editing insights, join his Patreon.