Technology

I wouldn't say that you're naive, you're just asking questions about something you want more information on since the info you have seen doesn't match up with the general opinion.

I found some articles, both in favour of Googles security and some that are not so you can read through them and decide for yourself if this can be considered Google being lax or if they are doing their best:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2025/09/224-malicious-apps-removed-from-the-google-play-store-after-ad-fraud-campaign-discovered

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/over-200-malicious-apps-on-google-play-downloaded-millions-of-times/

https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/over-300-malicious-apps-on-google-play-store-engaged-in-ad-fraud-and-data-theft-installed-60-million-times/

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/11/tech/google-ai-lawsuit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Google

https://www.creativefuture.org/google-scandal-timeline/

My own opinion: Google takes action sometimes, but as some of these articles says, many ads from scammers came through apps installed on the Play Store. Not by side loading or third parties. They do take action, but some may argue that they often don't do that until it's already widespread and argue about the morality of the company itself, but I'm going to focus on our original question - the side loading issue. After reading through these articles, I still find myself questioning why Google would block side loading and blame scammers, when it's already a problem in the Play Store itself. The only reasonable answer I can think of is to keep their monopoly and remove projects like Aurora Store, microG, ReVanced and so on. Especially since it is well known that Google does not care about its users, only about its profits.