In digital age it should be understood as a personal liberty to not be compelled by state to use nonfree software in any shape or form. Just like court rulings must be public and legislation too (sadly this doesn't apply in EU).

The EU governing bodies are speaking out of both sides of their mouths if they claim that they want data sovereignty while simultaneously relying on an evil, American company to verify your "integrity" 🤡

You'll never be sovereign if you rely on a for-profit entity that makes money by spying on people and selling your data.

What in the fuckety anti-anti-trust megacorp win is this???

Where is the petition to sign??

The main problem isn't the Google Play integration, but that this requires an Android or iOS device at all. This should be based on something like flutter or electron, and be easily portable with an agnostic build script for e.g. Linux, UBports, postmarketOS, and so on, as well. If only for the reason that most Android and iOS devices will effectively become unpatchable after the mandatory 5-ish years run out, while a standardized UEFI desktop platform will not. There are so many reasons not to have a "standard" smartphone nowadays. Also see here.

Maybe you shouldn’t provably tie your identity to a privacy phone?

I agree with most concerns here but as a professional prototypist... people do not seem to understand here and on related issues what "reference implementation" means.

This is NOT supposed to be used! By anybody! This is basically a technical demonstration that shows how it can be done at all.

Think of this as a test suite rather than software proper.

Again, this does not mean it's OK to even suggest that Google and Apple are in any way acceptable bottleneck. I do believe those are terrible choices. I do also believe relying on them just to do a proof of concept or technical demonstration is quite "lazy" but I also bet that this was necessary due to the scope of the project, e.g. "deliver us an app that works in 6 months on an average mobile phone". I really don't think they had discussion on accessibility, inclusion, etc.

So... yes, do keep track and be concerned but also don't conflate a proof of concept with a maintained app that will be required to be used on all EU citizen mobile phones next year.

identify yourself, citizen.

This verification efforts were kicked off earlier this month; this app hasn't really launched yet, has it? I think proper implementation after a test phase will maybe come next year. I think it is too early to complain that aftermarket OS's are being excluded. It seems to me that nobody has tackled that problem yet rather than this being a willful exclusion. And while the EU lawmakers thought it was okay to put the Googles of the world in a position where they get to be judge, jury, and executioner for the right to be forgotten, I have a feeling that GDPR and the general vibe within the EU will not allow this to only work with the help of one American corporation on the continent's most used OS. We need to be watchful but not despairing just yet.

Graphene OS can give apps access to the Google Play Integrity API.

Here is the source that they want to make e.g. Youtube, Netflix, ... rely on this new app: https://www.mlex.com/mlex/articles/2368265/online-services-get-up-to-12-months-to-apply-age-verification-eu-guidelines-say

@schizoidman The @EUCommission likes free software, but not very much, lest the big technology companies get upset and stop receiving briefcases of money.