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I really like the phrase malicious compliance.

There's a lot of that going on so many levels. Not just #DMA and finally I can call it out with one single phrase.

's competition is more than just businesses. Free software communities, governments, non-profits, and institutions are already making app stores.

desparately wants to limit the scope of the as much as possible, and wants the European Commission that is not part of the operating system, even though users cannot uninstall it. Google is even working to change the definition of "uninstall" so that it means the same as what currently calls "disabling". Even Google Play itself will entirely delete the app when users click "uninstall" except of course for the stuff where Google prevents uninstallation.

It looks like #Apple is using salami tactics with the @EU_Commission on #DMA compliance, giving up tiny slices in hope that might sway (and shut up) the regulator and the public.

I sincerely hope the Commission's enforcement team is not being fooled by this.

#DigitalMarketsAct #competition #appstore #appfreedom #foss
Source: #PoliticoPro newsletter

I'm sitting in the @EU_Commission #DMA compliance workshop for #Apple right now and as much as I appreciate the format, it's frustrating to see that Apple is the only party on the panel and in addition has its proxies like #CCIA and the #AppAssociation #ACT in the audience that are allowed to ask convenient questions and steer the discussion in Apple's interest.

#DigitalMarketsAct #competition #appfreedom #deviceneutrality #foss

With today's votes on #CRA and #PLD on the introduction of liability rules for software, a broad exception for #FreeSoftware was made, so that after long and intense debates individual developers and non for profit work are safeguarded.

fsfe.org/news/2024/news-202403 #SoftwareFreedom

I'd pay good money to read a 2,500-word deep dive comparing voluntary carbon markets with Pope Leo X's pay-for-penance scheme.

#climate #church

Want to see a visual example of why and have such a big impact? Massive amounts of water and resources go to growing cheap alfalfa, which is mostly cattle feed.

edition.cnn.com/2022/11/05/us/

took another big step towards "transition[ing] to a fully Open Access publisher... under a financially sustainable model". publishing is clearly the future of disseminating academic, scientific, and medical knowledge. Not so long ago, people were being jailed for opening up access while the publishers were not.

cacm.acm.org/news/cacm-is-now-

Docusign just admitted that they use customer data (i.e., all those contracts, affidavits, and other confidential documents we send them) to train AI:

support.docusign.com/s/documen

They state that customers "contractually consent" to such use, but good luck finding it in their Terms of Service. There also doesn't appear to be a way to withdraw consent, but I may have missed that.

has been moving more towards the deb.debian.org mirror which is provided by a single CDN company, . It works well, but also feeds an enormous amount of to a single company, and it can be used to track computers and maybe even people. And the privacy policy in effect is unclear. Fastly says the policy of the "subscriber" applies, but the privacy policy for deb.debian.org is not listed anywhere I could find. Anyone have any insight here?

This week in F-Droid (TWIF) was published again :fdroid:

We try to explain the "app was developed for an older version of android and can not be upgraded automatically" banner for some apps (including F-Droid itself).

Also, we talk a bit about the current localization problems on our website.

On the apps side:

- new Aurora Store version
- Element and SchildiChat were updated to fix two vulnerabilities.
- OpenKeychain was updated
- sing-box was added

f-droid.org/2024/02/29/twif.ht

#FDroid

🗓 Leap year. Année bissextile. Schaltjahr.

We mark this rare February 29 by celebrating the unique nature of the EU.

Our Union, with 24 EU official languages, shows what being united in diversity means.

Multilingualism is our greatest strength– It breaks barriers and helps us travel, collaborate, and understand each other.

Let's celebrate it every year, every day.

I have fond memories of degaussing my old CRT monitor for fun and distraction

Degaussing a CRT at 10,000fps #shorts #slowmo
youtube.com/shorts/Fkshp4Ikk6Y

This week on F-Droid (TWIF) :fdroid: was published again.

We talk about:
- F-Droid and F-Droid Basic 1.19.1 are now marked as "suggested" and arrive as update for every user
- a blog post from the Guardian Project regarding repos in F-Droid
- TorServices in our repo
- ZipXtract FD with fewer features
- Jami looks better
- Organic Maps was updated again
- Stitch is back again
- and a note about the boring wall of further app updates

f-droid.org/2024/02/22/twif.ht

#FDroid

The US data broker Bazze secretly obtains location and identity data about a hundred million people via smartphone apps, digital advertising and consumer records and sells it to the US military.

NSA-like global mass surveillance, but based on commercial data.

Forbes has now a report about it:
forbes.com/sites/sarahemerson/

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The and other actions against app stores are based on the idea that an app store companies should not "self-preference" their own apps or services. This makes sense to a certain degree, especially when thinking about business. Ethical reasons must also be considered. preferences apps based on and Anti-Features, which we as a community define. We should always be allowed to preference apps that follow standards of .

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