I mean, privacy had been getting worse for decades before Trump got in office. Mainstream tech has been on a steady decline for years, if not longer, and the privacy invasions being baked into most software have always been horrifying.
Was it all functional? Yeah. Were there a lot of horrifying things under the hood? Also yeah.
LedgeDrop@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
I beg to disagree there. Each year Big Tech has become more and more aggressive in taking control from us, the consumer. Microsoft with the requirements of TPM in order to install windows 11. Google with they’re delaying open source releases of android, preventing apps from being installed unless it’s non-cfw. All tech companies shoveling AI everywhere. John Deere with their vendor lock-in hardware.
This needed to stop and these companies need to be reminded that “the consumer owns the hardware and that includes functional software (that does not change without the users consent)”.
Unfortunately, the U.S. Government failed it’s people in defending consumer rights and tbh, the EU hasn’t really done a stellar job either. However, this is certainly the" kick in pants" the EU needs (hopefully) to start to create competition against U. S. Big Tech… and the EU certainly understands that it needs to protect these small EU start-ups as they try to find their footing.
So, I hope this results in the EU creating laws to “level the playing field”. Which, I hope, actually spurs innovate and Open Standards (something Big Tech has been working hard on suppressing), which will be good for all of us (regardless, if you’re in the EU, U.S., and beyond).
You’ll notice there is a lot of “hope” in these sentences. I am skeptical, but I can see how this could be “a good thing”.
mcv@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
For decades there has been tension between European data protection principles and US principles that corporations should be able to monetize your data and the US government should be able to access everything. Our dependence on US tech companies had made our position weak. We should have subsidised European cloud infrastructure a long time ago.
Especially the last few years it’s been terrible how many companies and organisations have surrendered to US Big Tech. Even Dutch banks have abandoned their own excellent contactless payment system to surrender to Apple Pay and Google Wallet.