this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
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Freedom in Mobile Computing

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/c/LibreMobile is a community for discussion of Free (Libre) Software in the mobile space, including Android and non-Android Linux-based OS’s.

Please don’t discuss, promote, advocate, advertise, or ask for help with proprietary software in this community. This includes using libre software with the purpose of enabling proprietary software (such as microG, Aurora Store, sandboxes, etc).

Proprietary apps are still proprietary even if they have no trackers or a nice-sounding privacy policy.

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National emergency app now available in Belgium (exclusively to Google and Apple patrons who run closed-source software) (web.archive.org)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by debanqued@beehaw.org to c/libremobile@linkage.ds8.zone
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cross-posted from: https://fedia.io/m/Brussels/t/556987

Belgium has adopted an “official” app so that anyone can signal for help, so long as they belong to this exclusive group:

  • Must have a smartphone (presumably recent).

  • Must be a trusting patron of #Google or #Apple. Consequently,

    • must needlessly buy a GSM subscription and trust surveillance advertisers with the mobile phone number (which in Belgium must be registered to an ID) — even though the app can make emergency contact without phone service… thus imposing a needless cost on users and also causing a #GDPR minimisation breach.

  • Must install and execute proprietary closed-source software. Consequently,

    • must trust closed-source software (by #Nextel or #Telenet?)
    • must be ethically aligned/okay with running #nonfreesoftware (which does not respect your freedom)

  • Must be willing to leave Tor to access the access-restricted 112.be website.

This is a example of a public sector phone app is deployed in a way that’s encumbered by private sector actors. Belgium really needs a “public money → public code” policy.

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