133 points by pabs3 10 hours ago | 33 comments on HN
| Neutral Editorial · v3.7· 2026-03-01 07:26:29 0
Summary Digital Control & Access Neutral
This technology news article reports on Samsung removing Android recovery menu tools from Galaxy devices, noting the reason is unclear. The content touches on themes of user control, device autonomy, and information accessibility, with mild positive signals for freedom of information and mild negative signals for privacy and autonomy. Overall, the article maintains a neutral reporting stance on technical changes.
Note that this menu item was not used to install Android apps, which is what people often mean by "sideloading", especially with all the discourse around Google's new developer verification requirements. This menu item was used to manually install an OS update from a .zip file and already required that file to be signed by Samsung on locked devices.
On unlocked devices, you can install your own recovery that still has the option. So the removal doesn't prevent too much in practice. That ship sailed when Samsung stopped allowing bootloader unlocking on most of their phones.
Old versions of Android do not comply with OS age-checking regulations in California, Brazil, and elsewhere. Samsung face legal repercussions including fines if residents of such jurisdictions are allowed to run an old OS. Yes, the laws apply to entities outside the borders of the territory.
Not surprising for Samsung to do this. Hacking on their devices (which are second to Apple at a hardware level) went downhill fast after they implemented eFuse-secured bootloaders.
What's interesting is that they tried hard to cater to the tinkerers before going in this direction. They "bought" (acqui-hired) CyanogenMod, contributed to open-source and had developer builds of their ROMs. I think they even had clean AOSP builds with the HAL and ABIs for their hardware baked in at some point. SafetyNet made it realistically impossible to daily a rooted phone in 2026 if you want to use banking, healthcare or most music apps, so it's safer for OEMs to tighten the screws on access to their hardware in kind.
My take is that they saw all of this as a risk to profits they could make from catering to regulated industries who would deploy their hardware en masse. It also didn't make sense to continue this investment after banks and healthcare put pressure on Google to step up privacy in Android, especially after Apple implemented Secure Enclave.
It's a pyrrhic victory regardless, in my opinion. If you're going to run a super-locked down Android device, you might as well go all-in with Apple. Their hardware ecosystem is better, their cloud services are better, they get first-priority for mobile apps, you get Blue Bubble Benefits, and their support (in-store and online) is on another level. Even MDM is better with Apple devices (through iOS Profiles). Shoot, even privacy-minded folks are better off on iOS with Lockdown mode.
I haven't used Samsung phones in a while. So I didn't realize that the situation got this bad. That's ample enough reason to continue the 'haven't used Samsung' part indefinitely. Yet another brand hits the do-not-buy list. But at this point, I think it's worth choosing a brand that explicitly supports reflashing and customizability, rather than taking a chance with all these leaches.
The legality of this update is also dubious in the EU as they are remotely crippling the device bought without any prior information, warning or way to go back.
Goodbye Samsung anyways, I've been with them since 2013 but it's time to go now.
This article isn't about the installation of regular apps. The "sideloading" it's referring to is the option to use the "adb sideload <OTA file>" command when booted into recovery mode to install OS updates. The functionality being removed is being able to install a proper OEM-signed OS update from a local file.
Android is still more open, you can side load apps. For example I like newtube and revanced, it's easier to sync local files like when using syncthing.
AnkiDroid is a fantastic app.
I can use extensions in Firefox, and real alternatives browsers.
If android gets so locked down so it's almost as using an Apple phone, I'll use graphene or just stop using a smartphone altogether.
Site implements Google Tag Manager (GTM-THGGVXB, GTM-W5LZ9VX) and dataLayer tracking without explicit privacy policy visible in provided content. Two separate GTM instances suggest comprehensive tracking infrastructure.
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Terms of Service not accessible from provided content.
Identity & Mission
Mission
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Article 19
9to5Google positions itself as technology news outlet; mission implies free expression and information dissemination, but no explicit mission statement in provided content.
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Editorial guidelines or code of conduct not provided in content sample.
Ownership
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Copyright holder identified as '925.co' in schema; parent organization identified but relationship to 9to5Google not explicit in provided content.
Access & Distribution
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Appears to be free-access public web content. No paywall or subscription requirement evident in provided markup.
Ad/Tracking
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Dual Google Tag Manager implementation and dataLayer tracking infrastructure visible. No explicit opt-out or tracking consent mechanism provided in content sample. Affects privacy rights.
Accessibility
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Article 2
Page includes screen-reader-text CSS class and semantic HTML structure (NewsArticle schema), suggesting baseline accessibility consideration. However, no explicit ARIA labels or alt text visible in provided markup.
build af177b1+4aph · deployed 2026-03-01 06:49 UTC · evaluated 2026-03-01 12:24:38 UTC
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