Safety of alternative app stores

[Kickstand]

As much as I want to avoid Google, to protect my privacy, I can’t help but worry about the risk I take by using app stores other than Google Play. When I download an app from, say, Aurora or F-Droid rather than Play, is there a way I can be sure it has not been tampered with?

For the time being, I have not yet adopted /e/ and am still using straight Android on a Samsung phone. Is there a reason I should not be using Aurora?

Even if Aurora is tracking my app downloads like Google Play does, I might be less worried about it since Aurora is (I think) independent of Google and does not have so much other information about me. But is there anyway of verifying this? I’ve looked at the Aurora website, but I can’t say it really seems to say much about it.

[nottolino]

You want to be reassured on risks, but nobody can’t do that unless you decide to jump out of G and check by yourself.

The water is not cold as it seems !!

I’m using FDroid since three years or so, and I hadn’t any security issue.

[Ana.117]

Everything depends on which Apps you use. I used F-droid only on my phone when I used Googly phone from the store. Aurora is out of my scope as all apps I needed I have found in F-droid
However if you need a banking app, then use of Aurora might be obligatory on less googly phone

[noodlejetski]

Aurora Store is just a different Play Store client, it downloads the same files from the same source that Płay Store does.

and F-droid only boss ope source apps. while open source doesn’t automatically mean secure, it’s less likely to be delivering malware because all the code is public for people to inspect.

[Taurus]

I personally am not convinced that Google Play is inherently safer.

Consider all the malicious apps that have been found there over the years, e.g. trojans, malicious VPN apps, etc.

Take a look at F-Droid’s process: F-Droid - Wikipedia