Google Play Store Forces Samourai Wallet to Remove Security Features

Google’s New Policies
Developers of privacy-enhanced mobile BTC wallet Samourai announced on Monday that they have been forced to disable a number of security features due to the Google Play Store’s new policies. They wrote:It is with great sadness that we are disabling the following features within Samourai Wallet as of version 0.99.04 – which will be released tomorrow – due to new extremely restrictive policies Google has decided to introduce in their effort to become more of a ‘walled garden’ experience.

Samourai Wallet would have been removed from the Google Play Store had we not complied with this dictate.
Three Hardcore Security Features Gone
The three soon-to-be missing features have been part of Samourai Wallet since its first release in 2015. They are optional settings that are turned off by default. According to the developers, “To this day no other wallet has enabled these types of features, and now it is very likely no other wallet will, thanks to the heavy hand of Google.”
The last feature Google has a problem with is Remote SMS Commands which “allows users who lost their device to remotely erase their bitcoin wallet to prevent further loss of their bitcoin stash,” the wallet developers described. “@Googleplay has killed that as well.”Many users in South America who use this feature are now at risk, thanks to @Googleplay
Bypassing Google’s Restrictions

In the meantime, Samourai developers have advised users to disable stealth mode prior to updating to the new version. What do you think of Google’s new policies which force Samourai Wallet to remove these security features? Let us know in the comments section below.In the coming months we will expand our distribution model to include self-hosted APK [Android install package file] downloads and inclusion in the open source F-Droid app store. These versions will all include the Stealth Mode, Remote SMS, and SIM Switch Defense features.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Twitter, and Samourai Wallet.
Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Google Play Store Forces Samourai Wallet to Remove Security Features appeared first on Bitcoin News.
android apk App Store ban BTC commands crypto Cryptocurrencies Developers Digital Currency f-droid Google Play N-Technology remote sms restriction samourai wallet stealth mode store Virtual Currency