There is always someone on standby to help you in need
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There is always someone on standby to help you in need

Belgium has adopted an “official” app so that anyone can signal for help, so long as they belong to this exclusive group:

  • Must be a trusting patron of #Google or #Apple. Consequently,

    • must needlessly buy a GSM subscription and surrender to surveillance advertisers who require¹ your mobile phone number (which in Belgium must be registered to an ID) — even though the app can make emergency contact without phone service… thus imposing a needless cost on users and also causing a #GDPR minimisation breach.

  • Must install and execute proprietary closed-source software. Consequently,

    • must trust closed-source software (by #Nextel or #Telenet?)
    • must be ethically aligned/okay with running #nonfreesoftware (which does not respect your freedom)
    • must maintain recent hardware, buying a new phone every few years to keep up with the version requirement imposed by the closed-source app, thus:
      • incurs needless hardware cost
      • produces needless e-waste

  • Must be willing to leave Tor to access the access-restricted 112.be website.

① see attached image of Google demanding SMS verification for a new account. (untested: whether a mobile number is demanded when registering outside of Tor; please reply if you know the answer to that; #askFedi)

  • @Camus
    1•3 months ago

    There are a lot of things your money is used for that you cannot use. Do you attend every university class given in Belgium, paid by taxpayer money?

    • ciferecaNinjoOPM
      1•3 months ago

      I would attend classes if tuition were gratis. Either way, I have the /option/ to attend. I am not excluded, unless the university requires students to have Facebook accounts, in which case I would protest on the basis that a right to an education and a right to privacy should be simultaneous rights.

      This app would be useful if it did not have the artificially manufactured arbitrary requirement to patronize Google and share information with Google that does not necessarily exist (a mobile phone number).

        • ciferecaNinjoOPM
          1•3 months ago

          No I haven’t. And I wouldn’t since it’s still a closed source app.

          I’ve heard rumors that Aurora store does not require a Google acount, but I’m not easily convinced because other 3rd party playstore apps still need a Google account because the API demands it. The Aurora store description shows this:

          Account login: You can login with either personal or an anonymous account

          I’m not sure what is meant by an anonymous account. Is that a shared account that Google tolerates?

          • @Camus
            1•3 months ago

            And I wouldn’t since it’s still a closed source app.

            I thought the issue was not being able to get the app, now it’s the fact that it’s not open source?

            I really don’t see why you are having so much Issues with a simple app

            • you can just remember the number
            • if you really want to make use of the app, get it through Aurora
            • if you don’t want to use Aurora, create a burner Google account with an empty email address you only use for that purpose (I never had to give my phone number to Google, I have 5 accounts)

            The last option might be the best for you.

            • ciferecaNinjoOPM
              1•3 months ago

              I thought the issue was not being able to get the app, now it’s the fact that it’s not open source?

              I mentioned that issue in the title as well as the 3rd bullet: “Must install and execute proprietary closed-source software”.

              Italy is perhaps the only country in the world forward-thinking enough to have a “public money → public code” policy. If public money finances the creation of software, the public should also benefit from access to the source code. It’s an injustice to spend public money on software then withhold the source from the public.

              I really don’t see why you are having so much Issues with a simple app

              I said this is not a /me/ problem. It’s a community-wide social problem. It’s an unjust deployment of a public resource. Solving the problem for just one person (for myself) does just that – it solves the problem for one person. And you can’t solve the problem for me because even if I could obtain the app without Google patronage and in a GDPR respecting way, it’s still closed-source software in the end.

              • @Camus
                1•3 months ago

                It’s an unjust deployment of a public resource.

                Many people living in Brussels don’t have a car. Is it fair that taxpayer money is used for highways, while people without a car cannot use them?

                it’s still closed-source software in the end.

                You can complain about this how much you want, you also need to be realistic. Governments in Belgium are known to be highly inefficient, to you really expect them to create free software? As you said, Italy might be the only country doing that (by the way, do you have any source on this? I’m curious)

                • ciferecaNinjoOPM
                  1•3 months ago

                  Many people living in Brussels don’t have a car. Is it fair that taxpayer money is used for highways, while people without a car cannot use them?

                  I’m one of those car-less people, and I much appreciate having the infrastructure of roads to cycle on. Some highways even have a cycling lane. Everyone who eats uses that infra.

                  You can complain about this how much you want, you also need to be realistic. Governments in Belgium are known to be highly inefficient, to you really expect them to create free software?

                  Belgium was sensible enough to write an open data law, whereby the gov is required to make data their data publicly accessible (e.g. train schedules rely on this and irail.be demonstrates). Software is even easier because there are software forges that make it more trivial than sharing a database. Inefficiency would benefit from FOSS devs. They could even just focus on the API and perhaps audit the app’s public development.

                  (by the way, do you have any source on this? I’m curious)

                  There was a FOSDEM talk about it, I think around 2018ish. Italy would likely be in the title in the archives.

                  (edit) found it:

                  https://archive.fosdem.org/2018/schedule/event/public_money_public_code/

                  • @Camus
                    1•3 months ago

                    I’m one of those car-less people, and I much appreciate having the infrastructure of roads to cycle on. Some highways even have a cycling lane. Everyone who eats uses that infra.

                    If you think that bicycle roads require the same maintenance ad highways for 35 tons trucks, then good for you.

                    Belgium

                    Who is going to pressure any Belgian government to release free software? Is that a constitutional right?

                    To answer to your other comment

                    the non-gratis factor makes it unsuitable as a reason for rationalizing a Tor block

                    Didn’t you read what I said in that comment? Mullvad browser is free, for everyone, no need to use Mullvad VPN.

                    A proper analogy would be if there are public-funded fireworks, but you’re arbitrarily blocked from the viewing area for not having a Facebook account.

                    • I can’t afford a car, I can’t use the roads, still I pay for it with my taxes
                    • I can’t afford a bike/I’m disabled and can’t use a bike, still I pay for those with my taxes
                    • I can’t have children, still I pay for public education
                    • I can’t afford a smartphone, even based on free software, I can’t use this app still I pay for it with my taxes

                    They do not give up their human rights to have equal access to public healthcare resources

                    Remembering a 3 digit number is now a public healthcare resources

                    If someone chooses to live in country, they accept the consequences of travel.

                    Why? Why should someone accept the consequence of travel more than using a burner email for a Google account?

                    I don’t see what you mean. If you can’t transfer money to certain regions, that’s a broken infrastructure which would have a rippling effect on everyone because it would mean merchants could not import goods from that region, which affects local pricing for everyone.

                    https://www.rtbf.be/article/la-flandre-transfere-chaque-annee-7-milliards-a-la-wallonie-8969884

                    As a Flemish tax payer, that’s money that doesn’t benefit me.