It’s time to start using a privacy focused browser! 👩🏻‍💻🔐

The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) is forcing Apple to give users a default browser choice.

Which default browser did you pick and why? 💻

#apple #dma #europe #privacy

Read more here: https://tuta.com/blog/apple-default-browser

So here's my experience of installing and testing @altstore

First off I went to altstore.io and purchased #AltStore using Safari on my iPhone SE (iOS 17.4.1). I got directed to a download page and clicking the download button pops up an error message.

#Apple #JustWorksNot #DMA

1/

It's pretty unsavory how everybody talks about #MarketPlaces when it comes to platforms for distributing apps. I guess because of #DMA. But it's important to take a step back once in a while and appreciate that like many other #FOSS platforms #FDroid is not a maket place, it's a #commons.

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons

shared resources

^{Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)}

Google is crushing Tuta via search results.

Intentional or not, as a gatekeeper #Google must offer fair competition for our private email service Tuta Mail - a direct competitor to #Gmail.

Google must stop its abuse of power which is in violation of the EU #DMA.

👉 https://tuta.com/blog/google-search-problem

Today, we have opened five non-compliance investigations under the Digital Markets Act.

It concerns:
🔹Alphabet’s rules on steering in Google Play
🔹Alphabet’s self-preferencing in Google Search
🔹Apple’s rules on steering in the App Store
🔹Apple's choice screen for Safari
🔹Meta’s ‘pay or consent model’

More info: https://europa.eu/!4NF6bV

#DMA #EU

Apple's response to its ~$2 billion fine is telling.

It's the same mentality Apple shows with the #DMA.

This must be the start of the #EU's crackdown on #BigTech. 💪

Here's why we're in revolt against #Apple's malicious compliance with the DMA
➡️ https://tuta.com/blog/apple-eu-dma-malicious-compliance

I’m not sure who’s to blame in the #EU for giving up to the lobbying efforts of #Apple and #Microsoft (I can’t think of anything short of either public official corruption or macroscopic incompetence behind the last minute partial reversal of the #DMA definition of “gatekeeper” for the two most valuable companies in the world), but these are some consequences of this decision:

1. If Apple isn’t labelled as a gatekeeper when it comes to #iMessage (an app used by 1.3B people), then they won’t have to comply and open up their walled garden to 3rd-party clients - while, for example, Messenger and WhatsApp will have to comply, despite having similar numbers of users.
2. If Microsoft isn’t labelled as a gatekeeper when it comes to #Edge (a piece of software installed as the default browser on an OS used by at least 1.5B people), then they’ll be free to keep rewriting https:// URLs as microsoft-edge:https:// just for the sake of intercepting everything and breaking compatibility, they’ll no longer have to provide browser selection pop-ups on fresh Windows installations, and they can keep opening all the web views and PWA on Windows devices in their own browser without providing alternatives - while, for example, Chrome and Safari will have to comply.

Shame on the EU for bending to them. They have just lost a huge chunk of credibility, and nobody should trust them the next time that they say that they want to uphold the same principles to everyone. Shame on these companies and on their lobbying efforts. Shame on everybody who still uses their products and gives them so much undeserved leverage.

The DMA and the “gatekeeper” definition was supposed to be the proof that these companies are now run by responsible adults. Being a “gatekeeper” is the acknowledgment that you are running platforms used by billions, and with great power comes great responsibility - towards society, towards regulators, towards the rules of the open market, towards your own competitors.

My employer might be included on the list soon as well, and I’m more than happy to comply. Large tech companies like ours have enjoyed lavish profits and outrageous market shares and ignored anti-competition laws for too long: now it’s time to prove that we’re all grown ups who want to play by the rules.

Instead, Apple and Microsoft have unleashed their overpaid legal counsels and lobbying crews, who have engaged in a pathetic dance to gaslight Brussels officials, and force them to say that one of the largest messaging platforms and one of the most used browsers in the world, run by the two companies with the highest evaluations in the world, for some reason are not expected to play by the rules written for everyone else.

Shame on them, and shame on the childish sociopaths who run them.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/14/apple_microsoft_dma_exemptions

Europe loosens the straps tying Apple and Microsoft to tough antitrust rules

Did someone say a safety word? iMessage, Bing, Edge, Ads avoid gatekeeper restrictions

^{Thomas Claburn (The Register)}

What do 70 pizzas, a pink gate, a white rabbit, the Digital Markets Act, the German public administration and 100 t-shirts have in common?

Of course it's @matrix, and all the answers to the questions above are in the wrap-up of our Matrix adventure in Brussels!

https://matrix.org/blog/2024/02/fosdem-wrap-up/

#matrix #DMA #fosdem #brussels

FOSDEM 2024 Wrap Up

Matrix, the open protocol for secure decentralised communications

^{Thib (matrix.org)}

Blazing fast Matrix, Native E2EE Group Calls, state of the art auth and potential WhatsApp interop.

Matthew covers the last year in Matrix and how it can be used to speed up the opening of communications silo required by the EU Digital Markets Act

https://youtu.be/s5BrVVf0B1I

#matrix #e2ee #voip #oidc #dma #whatsapp #silos

FOSDEM 2024 - Opening up communication silos with Matrix 2.0 and the EU Digital Markets Act

What role does Matrix play in opening up communications silo, as mandated by the EU Digital Markets Act? Matthew walks us through this, after a general updat...

^YouTube

NEW: WhatsApp will soon make it possible to chat with people who use other messaging apps. It's revealed some more details on how that will work.

— Apps will need to sign an agreement with Meta, then connect to its servers.
— Meta wants people to use the Signal Protocol, but also says other encryption protocols can be used if they can meet WhatsApp's standards
— WhatsApp has been testing with Matrix in recent months, although nothing is agreed yet. Swiss app Threema says it won't become interoperable

https://www.wired.com/story/whatsapp-interoperability-messaging/ #tech #whatsapp #dma #infosec #news #technology

WhatsApp Chats Will Soon Work With Other Encrypted Messaging Apps

New EU rules mean WhatsApp and Messenger must be interoperable with other chat apps. Here’s how that will work.

^{Matt Burgess (WIRED)}

We remain excited about the Digital Markets Act and the push for interoperability: https://www.wired.com/story/whatsapp-interoperability-messaging/

If you didn't catch the main stage talk from Matthew, Matrix's project lead, at FOSDEM, we encourage you to watch the recording once it's posted online: https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/event/fosdem-2024-3345-opening-up-communication-silos-with-matrix-2-0-and-the-eu-digital-markets-act/

#Matrix #Interoperability #OpenSource #OpenStandards #FOSS #FOSDEM #ProtocolsNotPlatforms #EUPol #DMA

WhatsApp Chats Will Soon Work With Other Encrypted Messaging Apps

New EU rules mean WhatsApp and Messenger must be interoperable with other chat apps. Here’s how that will work.

^{Matt Burgess (WIRED)}

I'm very excited to be presenting at FOSDEM in February! I've been working on messaging interoperability for about 2 years now with much of that focus being on developing an open standard for that exact purpose. We'll be exploring how #Matrix works as an existing decentralized open standard for *interoperable* communications, and how other protocol development work interacts with Matrix.

Join me for a technical look at #MIMI, #DMA, and the Matrix protocol: https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/event/fosdem-2024-3157-interoperability-matrix/

FOSDEM 2024 - Interoperability & Matrix

^fosdem.org

In the many discussions about #threads promise to add #activitypub support, regulations such as the #DMA and the #DSA, as well as the Canadian Online News Act have come up.

In this piece I dive deep into the specific articles of the Acts to see if they might impact Meta's decision making.

Read it at
https://fediversereport.com/making-sense-of-threads-and-regulation/

Making sense of Threads and regulation

The launch of Threads, with its promise of adding ActivityPub support in the future, is hotly debated.

^{fediversereport.com}

"Poor" #BigTech will have to comply with the #DMA, despite their intense lobbying. 😭

https://tutanota.com/blog/posts/dma-balancing-act

After 15 months of intense negotiations, the Digital Markets Act becomes the first significant law to regulate gatekeepers.

Finally, the #DMA will limit the power of Big Tech! 🥳

This will give users more choice & better privacy. 💪

Read more: 👉 https://tutanota.com/blog/posts/digital-markets-act-vs-big-tech

Big Tech lobby efforts failed to defang the Digital Markets Act!

With the DMA, EU adopts the strongest antitrust laws for digital companies we’ve seen to date.

^Tutanota

can't #DMA regulation do something about that? Like, a collective action against Google and Microsoft to force them to interop at email level

cc @SuVergnolle