Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one

Message from our Board of Directors:

Nominations are now open for the F-Droid board of directors!

https://f-droid.org/2024/02/28/help-advance-mobile-device-user-freedom-nominate-candidates-for-the-f-droid-board-of-directors.html

#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
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Fkshp4Ikk6Y?themeRefresh=1

This week on F-Droid (TWIF) 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

https://f-droid.org/2024/02/22/twif.html

#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:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahemerson/2024/02/22/bazze-data-broker-is-selling-data-that-can-locate-people-at-military-bases-and-embassies/

#Signal has a beta that makes it possible to chat without sharing your phone number with the others. This is an important development for privacy in use cases like journalists and activists that have to privately interact with people they do not know. Careful about using a public username for Signal, it could open you up to spam and targeted attacks like Pegasus.

https://social.librem.one/web/timelines/home

How Allowing #Copyright On #AI-Generated Works Could Destroy Creative Industries - https://www.techdirt.com/2024/02/20/how-allowing-copyright-on-ai-generated-works-could-destroy-creative-industries/ "it is not in the interest of artists to allow copyright on AI-generated works, whatever Big Copyright might have them believe."

One down, three to go!

#Tiktok: we're not a #gatekeeper and this will expose our shady #surveillance business to the world mimimimi

Court of Justice: yeah whatever, no. 👏

#ECJ #DMA #digitalmarketsact #Competition
https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2024-02/cp240028en.pdf

Thanks @eighthave! IMHO by running an F-Droid repo (whether it builds from source or just offers binaries) intended to be used by others, one accepts responsibility. So one should take the best possible measures to make it as safe and as transparent as possible. I try my best here, and I won't stop where I'm standing now – but hopefully improve it even more. 🤞 @fdroidorg

⚠️ Putting a price tag on the reject button means selling our fundamental rights. Together with over 20 NGOs, we warn of a fatal loophole in EU privacy laws if "pay or okay" tactics are allowed. The European Data Protection Board's opinion will shape the future of data protection. https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/15/no-consent-or-pay-pls/?guccounter=2

We have been running an #FDroid-compatible repository since 2012! Since then, the free software ecosystem on Android has blossomed, meaning @fdroidorg can be properly strict about #FreeSoftware. A couple of our apps still have a couple #proprietary blobs that are requirements. F-Droid no longer includes any third party repos by default, that means our repo is no longer there by default. It is still easy and safe to add it! Read on for more info:

https://guardianproject.info/2024/02/24/the-future-of-our-fdroid-compatible-app-repository/

#PeerTube, born in 2017, is more than an alternative; it's about freedom and user-friendly options. Its impact spans institutions, educators, content creators, independent media, and citizens worldwide. With over 1,000 instances, hosting nearly 1 million videos and 567 million views, PeerTube achieved this with less than 0.0022% of YouTube's ad revenues in 2022.
https://www.ngi.eu/news/2023/30/11/ngi-forum-2023-pouhiou-lafon/
Direct link to Video:
https://tube.network.europa.eu/w/7dBJNS6bsNhLbpg9PNv1qW
#NGI #ngi4eu #PeerTube #pouhiou

Good thing the #Apple App Store is secure, it would be a shame if the #DigitalMarketsAct allowed alternative platforms to set up shop and start pushing fake software to #iOS devices...

Oh wait 👉 https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/02/a-password-manager-lastpass-calls-fraudulent-booted-from-app-store/

This week in F-Droid (TWIF) was just published again!

We explain the "unattended upgrades for everyone" in 1.19.0 of our client in more depth.

Additionally:
- we talk about Acode editor - Android code editor, MRepo, PiliPala, SIYuan, K-9 Mail, Rocket.Chat and SimpleX Chat.
- big apps like Gao&Blaze, TuxPaint and Katawa Shoujo: Re-Engineered got their own paragraph
- the spring-cleaning continues
- our recap of FOSDEM is also linked

https://f-droid.org/2024/02/08/twif.html

#FDroid