That setting is essentially malware and it’s a huge shame that android added it.

I'm flabbergasted that there at least isn't a developer-option to disable it.

You can use things like https://github.com/veeti/DisableFlagSecure to disable it if you're willing to unlock your bootloader and install Xposed. But yes, it's incredibly user-hostile of Google to provide this without giving the user a built-in way to override it.

The point is, for every stupid DRM "solution" you come up with, some technical capable guy will find a way to crack this. Happens since more then 40 years in computer sience.

Unfortunately DRM is winning. It's failed before because the user could always drop down to a lower level and gain access, but now DRM is baked in to the hardware and OS of the devices people have. Those tricks to disable the secure flag feature do not work if the app uses safety net which can detect a rooted device and is backed up by boot chain attestation and hardware security chips.

Sure, for each part there is usually some exploit known, but the whole thing is getting much much harder to the point where if the average user said "How do I screenshot this app" the only real answer is to take a photo of the screen.

Yeah. At this point most computers up for sale actually belong to the manufacturer. The people who buy them have almost no control anymore. We'll never be truly free until we can make our own computers at home just like how we can make our own free software at home.

Agree with this. Cracking DRM was difficult and a PITA 20 years ago, but now the blackboxes are using the DRM modules that practically every device ships with it will get to the point where we need to go full "bunnie" Huang on the mobos to extract the keys.

Oaw, you 2 must be young. Remember the wars in end of 80's / beginning of 90's about PPV from satellites and everything was hardware protected? You know who won them? Pirates did. Hardware, software, whatever - if it's made by humans will be unmade by humans as well.

Absolutely - that was the point I was making. It'll be harder because we have to go into the hardware rather than the software, but we'll break it.

The PPV in the 90s was broken because too few bits were used on the encryption and it became possible to essentially brute force the keys, IIRC.

There's a way: don't use the app.

Android has become as user hostile as iOS these days. In some way its worse. iOS does not have a setting to block screenshots (although telegram seems to have found an obscure hack to censor parts)

Blocking screenshots is developer-hostile but user-friendly. Why shouldn't I be able to screenshot what's on my screen? Moreso, Apple DOES allow developers to blockout screenshots, although only for DRM-protected content via FairPlay and people constantly complain about it.

It's really not.

Why do you think that? I made the claim because it’s a feature that acts against the user. The user wants to take a screenshot and there is never a good reason to stop them from doing that on their own device.

You can still use the tool scrcpy to stream a video of the screen via USB to a PC.

Huh! I just tried this and you are right. I would have thought scrcpy wouldn't be able to see those screens. Thanks!

Only works up to and including Android 11, though.

Yea, I have even tried to capture a screenshot on a computer with scrcpy before that was not possible in the app that restricts screenshot

I always thought that flag was to protect the users sensitive information, like banking logins. Seems I was wrong and it’s mostly used for DRM purposes.

I've only encountered it with banking apps, so perhaps you were right.

Yeah it's a shame. Android allows for a lot of cool apps that have access to control or record other apps. I assume FLAG_SECURE was added for banking apps and the like (it's on for my banking apps), so it's a great addition.

If Android really cared about its users, all it would have to do is permit user-prompted screenshots and screen recordings but still block other app access. I can't think of a time where I'd want my own phone preventing me from screenshotting, but I can see the use case for general screen access prevention.

I don't personally know a root-obly way to disable this, but xposed has the disable_flag_secure module that I'm weary of using because it removes the flag everywhere.

Not without some kind of root access. But you can usually find an app that doesn't have that flag and can still decode DRM.

I just pop my phone on the photo-copier. Damp postit on the ADF, auto-scrolls the screen on each cycle.

You are joking right? If not, I'd kill for a video of this setup working.

Sadly I am. Although I'm idly just considering putting a magnet on the scan-head of a flatbed scanner. Could then just use tasker to detect the passing of the magnet as a 'page-down' scroll on the screen.

the "adb shell input" command as used in the linked article would be simpler.

You can either use root access or disassemble the app, remove the flag, and then assemble it again. Impossible to do if the app uses SafetyNet though.