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)
@ciferecaNinjo@fedia.io Why is the police not using 112 as well?
@Camus@jlai.lu
I’m not sure but I wonder if it has to do with the fact that 112 must work EU-wide. Although it seems that’s a big pitfall… when crossing borders you have to keep track of a separate police number.
Seems this app should just be scrapped and replaced with an open source one that works EU-wide.