EU unveils ‘revolutionary’ laws to curb big tech firms’ power - The Guardian
theguardian.com
- New regulations will target six major tech companies to improve consumer experience and data privacy. These include Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft.
- Pre-installed apps like weather and email that are difficult to delete will be disallowed, aiming to promote interoperability and reduce "gatekeeping" activities.
- Companies will be prohibited from monetizing user data collected from phone apps for advertising purposes.
- The regulations will encourage competition by allowing alternative payment systems, benefiting startups and consumers.
- The European Commission aims to empower consumers and ensure tech giants adhere to European rules, providing immediate accountability for any issues.
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I don't really understand how this is a material change from what AOSP gives you right now? Can anyone explain?
For example: AOSP has been available to EU start-ups for over a decade for free and open source but none have built alternative payment systems or email or maps or advertising services on top of it in a cohesive way before. What is this law going to allow them to do that they couldn't before? 🤔
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They're not. But my point is that EU manufacturers / start-ups could easily make their own flavour of Android based on AOSP and launch that as a product. Why don't they? Case in point Huawei.
I think the argument is that the monopoly is present because it's basically pointless outside of China to launch a phone without play services. So while you can release a phone based on AOSP, it's not going to be successful financially without the Google apps and tweaks from Play Services