this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2024
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No I dont know what they download. It should be in the scripts in their repo.
But they dont document that at all, instead giving the impression that it would be reverse engineered and open source.
I appreciate that you're trying to inform me but if you make such a claim, you should be able to prove it.
A friend was able to provide some context, regardless:
The one binary I'm aware of microG downloading (assuming it still does) is the SafetyNet "DroidGuard" thing, which it only does if you explicitly enable SafetyNet, which is not on by default. There is no other way to provide it.
microG only has privileged access if you install it as a privileged app, which is up to you / your distribution, as microG works fine as a user app (provided signature spoofing is available to it). Also, being privileged itself really doesn't mean giving privileges to "Google".
Apps needing Google services may indeed contain all sorts of binaries, generally including Google ones, which doesn't mean they contain Google services themselves. Anyway, they are proprietary apps and as such will certainly contain proprietary things, and it's all to you to install them or not. It's not like microG includes them.
Its also just a reimplementation of a small handful of useful Google services, such as push notifications, or the maps (not the spyware stuff like advertising) and each can be toggled on/off.
Also all apps on android are sandboxed
Also, SafetyNet is deprecated, and Google has said that app developers shouldn't use it for a long time before that, so I've never had to use it. My experience of a blob-free microG has been really good, and I trust FOSS code a hell of a lot more than sandboxed proprietary code, because I can't be sure what it does with the data I inevitably do provide it.
MicroG has also been very clear IMO about SafetyNet not being a reimplementation, but rather a sandbox when it was relevant.
Appreciate the additional context! Have thankfully not needed to use the safetynet module with microg either.