In instructions to Google, Judge Rossignoli says that the company must “adopt the necessary technical means to immediately uninstall from Android systems that report IP addresses in the territory of the Argentine Republic (which can be verified by the IP addresses assigned to this country), the application named Magis TV.”
"What was achieved is an unprecedented court order, which is in the process of being analyzed by Google – we understand that they cannot deny it – which is to uninstall, through the Android operating system update, the application on all devices that have an IP address in Argentina,” [prosecuter Alejandro] Musso says.
Is google even able to do it? They are unable to push os updates directly in most cases, sinco those go through phone vendors. Idk if they already have the ability to remotely uninstall apps. Maybe through the appstore?
The answers to this question would confirm or destroy a lot of tinfoil the good folks got floating around this here fora.
Well, I did not mean in a backdoor way. If google has a backdoor for the three letters agencies, I don’t expect they would reveal it even if the whole country of Argentine flipped itself over.
I meant in a public way. The play store can install apps remotely through a google account but I have no idea how far this goes.
They do with Play Services “Play Protect” feature
Even that is pretty limited since it can be disabled, and even if they changed it to not be officially able to be disabled by users, ROM makers can still disable it in various ways, and since their problem is TV boxes, including those shady unlicensed ones, I’m betting those would simply disable the feature via their unlicensed Android Roms.
Edit: Clarification, when I said unlicensed I didn’t mean Android itself, I mostly meant their use of Google play store and services which Google does require permission to use legitimately in your own Android product. Obviously it’s super easy to get them without google’s permission, it just won’t be licensed by them though if a company does that. And many TV boxes you buy cheap these days do indeed do that.
“unlicensed”
Sorry let me clarify, when I say unlicensed I meant that they are using Google Play services without Google’s permission or certification.
they can, through the mechanism that also allows to install apps to your phone from the google play store website.