EU unveils ‘revolutionary’ laws to curb big tech firms’ power - The Guardian

ijeff@lemdro.idmod to Android@lemdro.id – 494 points – EU unveils ‘revolutionary’ laws to curb big tech firms’ power
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.
66

You are viewing a single comment
View all comments

I know that I can uninstall first-party apps on iOS (for years now). I think Android users can, as well. It seems like, other than the monetization bit, this bill simply codifies things that already exist. Am I getting that right?

If so, they are praising themselves for saying "you have to" about things that already exist. Don't get me wrong, it's important to prevent backsliding (I hate that word), but c'mon. And yes, the anti-monetization bit matters, it should be there, I just think this is overblown reporting.

Carrier pre-installed apps are definitely not easy to uninstall on android

8 more...

Have you ever touched a Google phone? You CAN'T uninstalled preinstalled apps on ether of them, if you don't root your device third party app stores suck, the law allows you to get rid of preinstalled bloat, messager interoperability is included and so on, that's a huge law and the first against silicon valley giants with enforcment that will actually hurt them!

It's not just that. Apple can't self preference their own app store on iOS for example. They not just have to allow other app stores or just installing stuff, they also can't have their own store as a default. They also have to enable people to use browsers other than Safari.

You can definitely disable most pre-installed apps on Android, and even force uninstall them with adb. But complete removal is hard, so they'll still sit on the hard drive.

8 more...