Pretty sure the EU has done more for USA privacy on accident than our own government has done in general.
For a lot of rights, looking at the right to repair too. Keep it up over there!
What about the whole usbc apple thing? dont forget about that one
The EU has right to repair?
It's actually better than that.
"Obligation to repair goods to which reparability requirements under Union legal acts apply. The producers will be obliged to repair outside the legal guarantee. They can repair for a price or for free as part of a commercial guarantee. Examples of product groups currently covered: household washing machines, household dishwashers, refrigerating appliances and vacuum cleaners. More products will be added in the coming years, starting with smartphones and tablets."
They passed some regulation setting the time replacement parts have to be available for devices. 10 years I think. And replacement batteries are mandatory. Both are big wins for repairability.
Good Guy EU
Just wait for some corporate white knight to come here and explain how EU is stopping innovation. Love these guys, I always have a bag of popcorn at the ready.
REEEEEE MUH LIGHTNING PORT REEEEE IT WAS SUCH INNOVATION REEEEEEEE USBC KILLED MUH 11 YEAR OLD USB2.0 SPEED CONNECTOR
i swear i argued with someone that said killing lightning would create so much ewaste, and that still sounds like a stupid arguement to me…
Google may be forced by the EU to give you the freedom to choose which services are linked*
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is an EU law that takes effect on March 6, 2024. As a result of the DMA, in the EU, Google offers you the choice to keep certain Google services linked.
Gotta love the weaselly language.
I'm wondering if they try to slither out of actually complying with the law.
I'm sure they'll do it in a way that's convenient and doesn't require 14 clicks through obnoxiously designed popups every single time you use a Google service. Yep, certainly no way this could go wrong.
They just need to put it in the regular account settings and not a single person on the planet will figure out how to get to them and change them.
Law says that they can't favour their own service over that of their competitors. I guess they'll break it though.
and when they're caught, they'll dispute the claims with regulators, like every company does all the time.
i remember digging a bit into the french data protection office v. discord a while back, when they got hit with sanctions for not respecting gdpr, and they disputed every single claim, sometimes arguing in real bad faith, like them claiming they handle very little private user data, so they don't need to do data protection analysies like the law says.
considering google's sheer empire on data, i imagine they play the same tricks, but like 1000× worse
The EU seems like the only major entity actually trying at this point. They deserve a huge thanks in my book.
Cool. When can I have another location or backup provider on my Android phone?
You can already use any backup apps. ADB-based, root-based or simply copying the APKs.
Can't back up app data without rooting my phone, and I can't root my phone until a third party gets the make files for me to use with magisk, and Motorola is not forced to provide them.
you can definitely back up apps and most files using adb and a computer, and probably even your phone itself by doing adb over the network back to your phone
also, i think there's a way of setting up a different location provider in the developper setings on android!
Our EU saviors. Its so disappointing that we need to rely on the EU to force companies to make changes rather than our own governments...
Couldn't you always unlink Google services by using different accounts for them?
you could, but they definitely pushed you to use a single account everywhere, even logging you in automatically to your google account in chrome if you use it on google search or vice-versa
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
