It's still Amazon Prime Day, and one product that's on sale is the new "OSOM Privacy Cable", a USB-C cable with a data blocker switch. It is worth it?

OSOM sent me a cable to check out, but no this post isn't sponsored. The cable is 1m/5ft in length and supports USB 2.0 data transfer rates. Sadly, no USB 3.0 means there's not enough bandwidth for DP Alt. Mode, so you can't use this for video. Just charging (at up to 60W) or data (at up to 480Mbps).

One end of the cable has the product's main selling point: a hardware data signaling switch. It's pretty self-explanatory: Flip the switch and no data transfer is allowed, only charging.

I know Android's USB preferences says that "no data transfer" is an option, but it's actually an inaccurate descriptor. If it truly meant that no data was allowed, then ADB/USB debugging wouldn't work in this mode (but it does).

Android DOES support disabling USB data signaling, but it's:

1) Only possible on Android 12+

2) Requires USB HAL 1.3+

You can check the HAL version with this command:

adb shell svc usb getUsbHalVersion

Even if your device does support this, there's no user-facing toggle. All the APIs are available through Device Policy Manager, which is used to manage enterprise devices. I had to use Google's TestDPC app to test this.

Even though Android doesn't provide an easily accessible way to disable USB data signaling, should you buy a cable that can disable it at a hardware level? It's really up to you, as it's more about peace of mind than actually protecting you from a serious threat.

"Juice jacking" is more of a theoretical than actual issue. (Some great articles by KrebsonSecurity & ArsTechnica.) But if you just want to plug your phone in anywhere without worry, then maybe it's worth it to you.

The OSOM Privacy Cable normally costs $29.99 but is on sale for $23.99 until EOD on Amazon (non-affiliate link). It's a nice, braided cable albeit relatively expensive if you don't care about the data blocker switch. But again, it's up to you.

Google Play has just announced a couple of new policies. Here's a summary of what they announced:

1) A new blockchain-based content policy that states that devs must complete a declaration for apps that enable users to transact blockchain-based digital content. Additional requirements apply for NFT gamification. Google's blog post on this particular change.

2) Apps that run "On-device Android Containers" will be required to respect the new REQUIRE_SECURE_ENV flag, indicating that they don't want to be run in an On-device Android Container.

I believe this refers to apps like Virtual Android and VMOS on Google Play, which run Android in a container. Google believes apps should be able to opt out of running in containers, hence this new flag.

3) New guidelines to their Deceptive Behavior policy to provide guidance on "non-transparent behavior." Basically, Google's making it clearer what they mean when they say developers can't engage in non-transparent behavior. Devs must make their app's functionality clear to users.

4) Expanded verification: when you create a Play Console account for an organization, you'll need to provide a D-U-N-S number. Further, Google will share more developer details on your app's store listing page.

This will roll out starting August 31 for anyone creating a new Play Console developer account. More details will be shared in October for existing developers. Google's blog post.

5) All apps that offer financial features must complete the declaration form. These apps may need to submit supporting documentation as well. This takes effect August 31.

6) The Request Install Package Permission policy has been expanded to allow companion apps used to sync Android phones to wearables or IoT devices.

ICYMI: the Amazon Appstore on Windows 11 is now generally available for all developers. This means anyone can submit their app to the Amazon Appstore for users with the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) to download.

WSA is how I currently post to Threads* from my PC. The Threads app isn't available on the Amazon Appstore, though, so I had to sideload the APK. A program called WSA Tools makes that easy, but you can also just do adb sideload.

The latest version of WSA also makes it easy to share files between your PC's local storage and Android. Any files in C:\Users\{profile} will be indexed by Android.

WSA is pretty niche right now, but it's yet another (albeit one that's not Google endorsed) large screen Android platform to optimize for, alongside tablets, book-style foldables, Chromebooks, and Play Games for PC.

*Just to warn you, there are some strange bugs when using the Threads app on WSA, including the fact that videos you upload get flipped upside down. This has also been happening with the Instagram app, apparently. That WSA now indexes your entire home directory can also be problematic, especially if you've got tons of files and you're dealing with an app that doesn't use the system file picker/photo picker (like Threads). You'll have to either move a lot of files or add .nomedia everywhere.