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blop | on: European "age verification" "app" forcing everyone to use Android or iOS
This is the elephant in the room regarding the big "digital sovereignty" talks in the EU. For the moment in the EU institutions the focus is mostly at the post-acceptance stage that everything must eventually migrate off US clouds. There is still some denial and hope that things will go back to "before" because it's going to be extremely costly to migrate, but at least high level EU civil servants start to see the strategic value of moving out.

However there is ZERO talk about mobile platforms... No alternative solution like linux for the desktop, no money or care given to the few alternative that tentatively exist, and zero talk about forcing companies (at least for the ones shipping android phones) to open up their firmwares and allow users to install alternative OS if they want to sell in the EU.

So whilst the backend guys more or less got the memo about sovereignty, I think there is still a lot of educational work to do regarding end user devices and what kind of digital slavery hole we're digging ourselves in...

omnimus | parent | next
This is not entirely true. I don't have much details but I know people who started to work on two separate free software projects aiming to make supported mobile OS. These projects couldn't get funding before but they do now. Afaik it's still a battle with AI companies lobbying that soverign AI is much more important than mobile OS but there is some growing interest. Imho i don't even think some linux based alternative to Android would be that hard to pull off but it's the hw companies that will be skeptical to build hw for such OS. I would have to be some govs puahing it as secure gov devices first.
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mytailorisrich | parent | next
Because this is all a political move. This so-called "EU sovereignty" drive is in fact aimed at further reducing sovereignty of the member states via further transfer of power and control to the EU.

These digital ID wallets do exactly that. Member states lose control of the ID infrastructure, which will now be controlled by the EU. There isn't much sovereignty left at national level...

reloadtak | root | parent | next
Each member state has to implement the system themselves. Where is the loss of control?
joe_mamba | root | parent
This is totally not the EU version of China's social credit score system and WeChat SSO system.

It will totally not be used to sanction you the moment you become a nuisance to the EU elites by saying "wrong speech" that goes against their mandated doctrine or pointing out their acts of corruption or dismantling of democracy.

The EU building in Brussels even has the word "DEMOCRACY" plastered on the front in large bold letters[1], in case you forgot.

[1] https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/media/photo/P-069521

cbg0 | parent
Isn't AOSP a thing?
jchw | root | parent | next
This app requires Google Play. AOSP alone won't cut it.
roundabout-host | root | parent
In fact, it requires attestation: even if you install Google Play on some Android in an emulator/container/VM, on an alternative Android distro or in a rooted device, the app will not accept it.
notabotiswear | root | parent | next
Writings on the wall can’t be clearer on AOSP’s future…
snottynose | root | parent
It is true that Google (de facto) controls the platform and made themselves (de facto) essential to utilizing the platform by integrating their proprietary services so deeply into the OS that you need to be a behemoth of Samsungs caliber to even attempt to meaningfully re-purpose the AOSP, and this was a brilliant strategy because it has allowed Google to solidify their spot in the duopoly / oligarchy while seeming "open". But. I do believe that Google will continue to publish the AOSP source code under a permissive license and that this code will be indispensible to a European Manhattan project for tech sovereignty, should policymakers ever see the light.
notabotiswear | root | parent
Have to throw in this 13 year old Ars Technica article as a follow up:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/googles-iron-grip-on...

Still amazes me how everyone isn't cynical-by-default about anything Google (or big tech in general) open-sources yet...

spwa4 | root | parent
You mean giving China control over it?

(because you still need the hardware made, and it's not like the EU commission is even prepared to fix BSPs for that hardware)

The EU has endlessly sold critical infrastructure to US, India and China while actively sabotaging efforts to rebuild it and now want it back - for free. This is criticized as having a low chance of success, as well as being a pretty unreasonable demand.

inigyou | root | parent
TIL Google is China