Obviously acquiring publicly available data is legal
Under the EU GDPR it is often not legal. Controllers need a legal basis, which only exists if there is an appropriate relationship between the controller and the data subject.
Are you saying granite? It's granted, with a D. Take things for granted. Did you actually think it was... Jesus Christ Rick, what are you a boulder, a rock person? How long have you been saying that wrong?
The scenario you describe is so far from reality that it's hard to take as something other than a creative writing exercise. Israel is not existentially threatened at all. The IDF is far better equipped than all the other countries in the region and Israel was just in the process of normalizing relations with some of its neighbors, including Saudi Arabia. All the military support from the USA isn't saving anyone, it's just funneled there to keep the military industrial complex happy and kill Palestinian children as a byproduct.
The Google Play Store has long been the bastion for safe and worry-free app downloads
It's nice that the article starts with this blatent lie, so that you know everything that follows is just regurgitating Google's marketing.
Even ignoring that most of the apps in the play store are unreviewed proprietary spyware sending all their data back to Google, there have been many instances of obvious malware being distributed through the play store. It seems like they are trying to sweep that under the rug.
RCS is walled off by design, so that users are dependent on Google and their phone carrier. If they wanted an open standard they would have adopted something like XMPP.
Under the EU GDPR it is often not legal. Controllers need a legal basis, which only exists if there is an appropriate relationship between the controller and the data subject.