I’m wondering if Google can reasonably be asked to change some of the scary language in the authentication screens.
It’s OK for Google to say This app hasn’t been verified by Google yet. Only proceed if you know and trust the developer. That is good advice.
But, the line Go to Mailpile (unsafe) is defamatory. Google has no evidence that Mailpile is unsafe and should not say that it is. IIRC the screen that follows after this one (Bjarni doesn’t show it) contains additional objectionable uses of the word “safe”.
Even if Google “verifies” an app, does that ensure that the app is “safe”? Is Google really going to do an in-depth security audit of tens or hundreds of thousands of lines of code to verify that every app is safe? We all know that it is possible to create a back door (intentionally or not) with a few lines of code hidden in some otherwise innocuous module. It is probable that there are undiscovered vulnerabilities even in Google’s own API code. The idea that Google can magically find or prevent every possible vulnerability is absurd and arrogant.
Safety or the lack of it is not a binary property, but a continuum. Many of us feel that it is “unsafe” to use Google itself!
Pardon the rant. But, this is something that government anti-competition regulators should be looking at.