Oh yep, I mixed up rev. ans profit. Still though, that doesn’t change anything I’ve said so far. It is still effectively chump change that can be recuperated in a short amount of time. Also, which one specific company got fined 3bln?

European software is still better for the european consumer on privacy because of europe’s better privacy laws

This literally just boils down to “European is better for the European because it’s European”, if you’ve read any of these you’d get why:

• EU funds are flowing into spyware companies, and politicians are demanding answers
• The EU Funds Surveillance Around the World: Here’s What Must be Done About it
• AI mass surveillance at Paris Olympics – a legal scholar on the security boon and privacy nightmare
• Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware
• 20 biggest GDPR fines so far [2024] (the fines in question are negligible, and only serve to line the pockets of the rich)
• Female health apps aren’t doing enough to protect sensitive data, study says

The EU does not shy away from being terrible in terms of privacy, in fact it is far from being any semblance of “good” privacy, they just do a good job of keeping it hush-hush.

GAFAM have been basically allowed to operate carefree within EU jurisdiction because GDPR only serves to benefit capital and those with capital already. It’s been 10 years since it’s been introduced and not a single GAFAM company has been stopped by the EU. Every single OEM Android phone ships with Google Play Services, an Android OEM flavor that is not open-source and auditable and sometimes comes with GAFAM preinstalled.

Laptops and computers ship to the EU with Windows, a privacy nightmare, that’s been allowed to exist and fester the consumer market for decades, even well into the introduction of GDPR.

Schools, offices, etc… throughout Europe still largely depend on closed-source software like G Suite and/or Microsoft Office, Figma, Notion, etc… The European alternatives, save for LibreOffice which doesn’t see widespread adoption outside of maybe a few cities in Germany, are all closed-source bs.

The “efforts” that have been made so far like Fairphone, Sailfish, etc… have all been small-scale and underfunded compared to the amount spent on everything else, e.g. military.

Point is, so long as the Euros are at the US’ behest, EuroKKKrakers are not serious about privacy and security, and never will be, so they resort to random ass nationalist appeals that only quiets down when a Democrat takes office. So long as their own software are closed-source BS even if it has the word “privacy” plastered all over the landing page, it should not ever be called “private” or “secure”.

Various european public institutions are moving to open source solutions meaning just Germany, the Netherlands and Germany. Even if this were true, they are incredibly underfunded compared to what they spend on military and “state security”.

the fines for GAFAM are increasing more and more, and starting to actually hurt

The “fines” that are “getting higher” are imposed on GAFAM, it’s still chump change even if they add $20 more million to the fines. The highest fine was around a billion euros for Facebook. That fine also was never settled yet either, it’s still being fought in court like basically most other settlements. Do you also know how much time it would take for Facebook to recoup that value, if they do get fined that much?

I mean, it is though. Even if it wasn’t it’s still worth doing to support local industry.

It really isn’t. Consult every single source I posted in my previous reply to see why. There’s obviously nothing wrong with supporting local industry, in fact I advocate for this. What I’m saying here is that there’s something wrong with blindly advocating for a Eurocentric initiative that is ideologically bankrupt, one that reinforces a European superiority complex and is only backed by appeals to European nationalism.

No problem :)

“Buy European” / “Use European” is a deeply unserious and reactionary mantra that assumes software and hardware manufactured and designed in Europe is inherently the “safest” and “most secure”. Or if not, then “safer” than their AmeriKKKan or their Chinese counterpart. Or if it is not “safe” at all then it is assumed it is “less unsafe”.

It’s reactionary, because it reinforces ideals for European nationalism and only ever came up so far when Trump got elected. It also necessarily espouses the Great Man Theory because of that, which you seem to entertain there.

If Europe or European companies were serious about security and privacy, they would do well to decouple from GAFAM. The reality is that European institutions all use Microsoft or Amazon to host their websites, use Google or Microsoft for their office suite software (save for a few and far between insignificant instances of LibreOffice use), use Instagram/Facebook/Twitter/etc… for public communication, as well as promotional and marketing purposes, and so on.

If the EU had any skin or teeth, they would actually enforce their GDPR regulations and not allow any GAFAM in Europe. Instead, they are essentially allowed to continue to operate, the “fees” GAFAM pay for violations of GDPR rules are basically only chump change and can be made back within hours.

And finally, the EU routinely invests in spyware to be used within and outside their borders. It’s no surprise it deservedly doesn’t get the traction Europeans want.

The real solution, which correctly transcends any and all borders, involves advocating for Free/Libre Open Source Software and Hardware. It shouldn’t be hard to understand why.

Sources:

• EU funds are flowing into spyware companies, and politicians are demanding answers
• The EU Funds Surveillance Around the World: Here’s What Must be Done About it
• AI mass surveillance at Paris Olympics – a legal scholar on the security boon and privacy nightmare
• Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware
• 20 biggest GDPR fines so far [2024] (the fines in question are negligible, and only serve to line the pockets of the rich)
• Female health apps aren’t doing enough to protect sensitive data, study says

Great vid, but did the reviewer really have to rub the “European” aspect of it throughout? smh…

Anyways, she mentions that there’s the option of using Aurora Store + F-Droid, I wonder if govt. apps that are basically required for day-to-day services (e.g. Absher, Sehaty) would work with or without microG… I might try and find out for science, once I have the means to do so :).

Otherwise, compartmentalizing by having two phones, one Android for the govt apps and one Linux, would basically be meta until something changes.

It’s fine, no sweat, there are solutions for viewers/lurkers:

Browser:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/libredirect/

Android:

https://github.com/polymorphicshade/Tubular

Sadly Invidious instances always have problems because Google keeps making breaking changes to how videos are fetched, intentionally or unintentionally.

Google Account deletion in theory should delete all data stored in Google, but that theory rests on Google following up on what basically amounts to a pinky promise. As long as you don’t have anything important stored anywhere, like in your Google Drive/Photos, etc…, it should be fine.