Bitcoin Wallet Forced to Drop Key Privacy Features From Google Play App

[PRIBO247]

Privacy-focused bitcoin wallet Samourai is having its hand forced
by Google.

According to a Samourai blog post, the wallet provider is disabling
privacy features that are key to its design before its latest version,
0.99.4, hits the Google Play store tomorrow. The removed features
include Samourai's Stealth Mode, remote text message (SMS)
commands, and SIM Switch Defense (a measure to protect against
sim swaps).

The privacy restrictions only affect the version of the wallet
available on Google Play. To bypass these restrictions, users can
also download what Samourai calls the "non-nerfed version" of
the wallet client's latest version directly from the project's Github .
Down the road, the team also hopes to get the wallet, privacy
features fully-enabled, listed on F-Droid and other alternative,
open-source app stores, as well.

"In October, Google announced changes to their policies regarding
SMS and Dialer permissions that apps are allowed to use. The way
that our Stealth Mode, Remote SMS commands, and SIM Switch
Defense work require use of these permissions," a Samourai
Wallet representative told Bitcoin Magazine in an email
correspondence.

Samourai proceeded to file for an exemption, but they were notified
of their exemption's rejection just "a few days ago," according to
the representative.
"Unfortunately, they didn't tell us anything specifically, we learned
of everything through automated emails that could not be
responded to," they continued.

Samourai is only available for Android, in part because it can't pin
down iOS developers who "are willing to work for the passion of it
over the profit," the representative indicated. The project hasn't
"had much luck with iOS developers so far," but it is "committed to
bringing some version of Samourai to the iOS store eventually,"
they claimed.

With these restrictions, Samourai lamented the changing
landscape of Android over the past few versions. These changes
have, in Samourai's words, created a "walled garden," something
the wallet provider discusses in its blog post and reiterated in our
correspondence.

"Very strict changes in background data a few versions ago meant
that Samourai users would no longer receive alerts on incoming
payments unless we routed all alerts through Google's own
servers. We obviously decided not to do that, but that was - in our
view - the beginnings of the walled garden being built. The latest
policy changes regarding SMS and Dialer permissions show a
marked change of strategy for Google, bringing it closer in
alignment with the Apple iOS Store than ever before."
If users opt to download the wallet directly from Samourai's
Github, the team cautioned that they should "verify the integrity of
the APK they download by comparing the SHA-256 hash of their
APK with the SHA-256 hash published on Github."

At time of publication, Google had not responded to Bitcoin
Magazine's request for comment.

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