I imagine Proton is better equipped to help with the administrative burden of it all than GrapheneOS is given they’re only a small team of developers with their hands full as it is.
Very good news from them. I’m also super glad that they (GOS) are steadfast in their refusal to engage with political drama.
How do you know that Proton has more developers than GOS?
Common sense.
I don’t see much point in creating a new topic but it seems likely that the UK CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) may have been one of the regulatory agencies which reached out to the GrapheneOS team regarding Google’s anti-competitive practices with the Play Integrity API. They are now investigating Apple and Google in relation to the following:
The extent of competition between and within Apple’s and Google’s mobile ecosystems. The CMA will assess how competition is working across Apple’s and Google’s mobile ecosystems and what barriers may be preventing other competitors from offering rival products and services on Apple’s and Google’s platforms.
Possible leveraging of Apple’s and Google’s market power into other activities. This will include investigating whether Apple or Google are using their position in operating systems, app distribution or browsers to favour their own apps and services, which often come pre-installed and prominently placed on iOS and Android devices.
Potential exploitative conduct. This will include investigating whether Apple or Google are requiring app developers to sign up to unfair terms and conditions as a condition of distributing their apps on Apple’s and Google’s app stores; and whether users may be presented with ‘choice architecture’ which makes it difficult to make active choices about which apps they are using on mobile devices.
Source & further reading:
Hopefully, they will recognize the Play Integrity API as an unfair obstacle which hinders competitors ability to offer an alternative AOSP-based OS (e.g. GrapheneOS).
I have low hopes for the CMA, as the current head of the UK CMA was formerly the head of Amazon UK, an incredibly poorly-behaved monopoly. But it might be in Amazon’s best interests to fight with Google given they aren’t part of the OHA and don’t have permission to use Google Play Services on their Kindle devices.
Yes, I’d think Amazon could be an ally in this case. They’d benefit from Play Integrity and Play Services becoming less important.