External Publication
Visit Post

"Potentially unsafe" label should be reserved for actual unsafe things

Flathub Discourse [Unofficial] May 8, 2026
Source
Yes it’s old news, but this decision still baffles me. It feels like self-sabotage for an app store to label 99% of its apps as unsafe, no other app store or repository has ever done this and for good reason. It accomplishes two things: scares people and falls on deaf ears for others (if everything is unsafe, nothing is unsafe). Even when the developer goes above and beyond with their safety practices, they only get “probably safe”. We don’t need this ambiguous unconfident threat level assessment at all, the page should tell users the permissions and details and let them figure it out, like with everything that isn’t on Flathub. This label should be reserved for cases like these so it actually means something: * Apps using EOL runtimes * Apps that handle cryptocurrency keys (biggest fattest targets for hackers) * Abandoned networking apps * Unverified proprietary apps

Discussion in the ATmosphere

Loading comments...