alt Hacker News> always inform them of the consequences
This would be about as useful as telling the cat why he can’t go out right now. The words would not be understood, as they won’t be by probably 90% of humanity.
> If they want to…
They don’t. Categorically. The only reason they would try is because they are being scammed with offers of getting something or cajolement entreating them to allow it.
> Why should you have control what they can or cannot do?
Me? I’m not asking for control. I’m saying that most people aren’t equipped to understand the threats they face, even in the face of explanation or warning, and their use-cases are comprehensively covered without it. My parents are old. My brother ends up with any PC he owns full of malware and viruses. The current status quo serves them and many millions of other people very well, and we need to be very cautious when arguing to rip this away in the name of our freedom - to them it only represents freedom to be exploited.
> Should experts in other fields also be able to control over what their layman family member…
Experts in other fields determine the extent of what all laypeople may do legally all the time. Or do you live somewhere that there are zero restrictions on (for example) gas plumbing or work on electrical systems?
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I remember that in order to unlock the bootloader of my trusty old Xiaomi Mi 5 (I still use it to this day as a test device for development) I had to go to some website, say that I'm happy with unlocking it, agreeing to the terms and stuff and at the end be willing to wipe my device clean and have an "unlocked" written under my boot animation. I think these would stop your average joe, but now I've heared Xiaomi has blocked unlocking your bootloader in its entirety which is a shame, they used to allow root access from inside a stock app.
>They don’t. Categorically.
They do. Categorically.
> The only reason they would try is because they are being scammed with offers of getting something or cajolement entreating them to allow it.
F-Droid installed German university made QR app. Messaging app that government does not like because it disallows spying on citizens.
> The current status quo serves them and many millions of other people very well
Said you.
So well that only time I had to deal with malware and scam in one was when my parent installed QR App from Google Play and got AD served to them to confirm mobile payment.
REALLY * WELL.
> to them
To you.
> it only represents freedom to be exploited.
There is no reason that verification cannot happen in SSL style - and no layperson will create CA certificate, believe me.
> be very cautious when
Because of that Google decided that it will first introduce it in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand... wait a moment I think I seen that list somewhere...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Brazil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Thailand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Singapore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Indonesia
This was created so governments can censor any application that allow people to communicate. To limit freedom of expression. You are made into useful idiot.
The fact alone that the 'test subjects' are people living in censorship-like countries should tell you enough.
> Experts in other fields determine the extent
There is exception here - no one determines who can speak - but now Google can do so by revoking application certificate.
> rip that away
You are ripping that away - all of current democratic infrastructure now requires computer communication.
You are removing user's ability to install software, You are giving governments way to censor and spy on citizen on massive scale. You want change. You should be careful not us.
> all the time.
Not all the time - only when there is reasonable ground. You do not provide one - if you think your 'reason' is good then we should ban all communications because someone may send malware in one of links in them.
If you want apple go apple.
> Me? I’m not asking for control.
Yes you do - you asking for control to be given to governments in long run, saying otherwise is disingenuous.
You are overblowing it out of proportions. Majority of people are capable of understanding warnings just fine, you're not that special. When they can't, it's usually because it was communicated poorly. More often, they choose to ignore it, because of too many useless and overblown warnings.
Why aren't your family members sending money to the Nigerian prince? I bet your parents and brother are able to perform money transfer, so the tech isn't blocking it, but they don't do it.
Windows has very poor security model. It fails all security requirements I mentioned in my previous post. Needing elevated permissions to move a shortcut to a subfolder on their desktop just trains users that a lot of warning in Windows are useless.
A lot of dangerous and stupid activities are legal. Experts influence laws, but they don't have the power to prohibit laymen around them from doing legal things. Running software of your choice on your devices is legal last time I checked.