this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2026
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Europe

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[–] Nangijala@feddit.dk 5 points 43 minutes ago (2 children)

It’s going to take some time to change the entire system. Remember that up until recently, while not super ideal, we still thought that the US, at the end of the day, was our allies. It’s easy to sit and be a captain hindsight, but until recently, it was the smartest thing to keep things as they were, as to not put extra financial strain on everybody. Now we have no choice and I for one am very happy that we are making the move to separating ourselves from America because I have hated the US since Bush and always felt they had too much influence over on us in Europe.

At the same time, I’m not gonna sit and piss and moan about all the American tech we still use or when European countries honor weapons deals they made before America went insane. Change is slow, frustratingly slow, but we are moving. It is happening. It’s just not gonna happen over night to appease impatient people who have no idea how big of an ask it is to have all European systems switch to open source. That is going to take years and a lot of money, but it is happening. My government has already had an entire department switch to Linux to test it and I believe that they will continue to make changes in that direction as the years pass.

But sure, one can also bitch about the current state of things not being perfect and up to your personal standard. Thats also a strategy.

Yes, breaking the dependency on cloud providers is already extremely hard. But breaking the dependency on mobile OSes is going to be dramatically harder. What good is digital sovereignty if all users are still tied to American products to access those systems?

[–] stray@pawb.social 1 points 20 minutes ago

Change only happens as a result of bitching.

[–] vane@lemmy.world 26 points 3 hours ago

https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet/av-doc-technical-specification/discussions/19
I mean it's been almost a year and nobody from EU officials gives a fuck.

[–] claimsou@lemmy.world 9 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

The EU apps are all very poor. The alien invasive species reporting app is a nightmare on iPhone. It can’t be used at all.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Maybe they should just call obama and report it.

[–] claimsou@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 19 minutes ago) (1 children)

I wanted back then to report the presence of Raccoons in my neighborhood. They appeared 2-3 years ago. They are not all endemic.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 1 points 2 minutes ago

I was just making a dumb joke, Obama made a statement about there being aliens a few days back, you mentioned aliens.

[–] plyth@feddit.org 18 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

please consider

More like 'you must'

[–] rustydrd@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 hours ago

I absolutely hate this phrasing. Thanks, I considered it and determined that I won't do that. Now what?

[–] Teppichbrand@feddit.org 85 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Got my new licence plate online a couple weeks ago, here in Germany. Two options to pay: PayPal or MasterCard. This is ridiculous.

[–] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 43 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Why tf is a government entity using paypal??

[–] PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Because everybody here uses paypal for online payments. Because banks and governments have failed to create a viable alternative. WERO is coming tho. One day. About 20 years after we needed it. soon. still waiting.

[–] 0x0@infosec.pub 1 points 1 hour ago

Sweden uses the domestic Swish, works much better than paypal. There are most definitely viable alternatives and have been for quite some time now.

[–] AlaknΓ‘r@piefed.social 25 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Because people use PayPal and the government entity is trying to be helpful.

[–] baguettefish@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (2 children)

but what people in Germany really use is cash or a girocard (card attached to your regular checking account).

but yes, european reliance on america is horrible, usually in addition to the girocard functionality on your card, which is usable only in germany, there's also some mastercard or visa functionality in the card, which allows you to use the card at the very least in the SEPA area (single euro payments area, 41 countries are members, visa vpay or mastercard maestro) and in cases where you get the full mastercard or visa on top of your girocard you can of course pay worldwide with a bunch of asterisks.

that means cross-country payments with your card are locked behind america, which is why wero (europe's new digital payment system for use in the SEPA) makes so much sense.

[–] Tywele@piefed.social 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Girocard is used less and less because many banks don’t issue girocards free of charge anymore. You only get a debit card for free and have to pay extra to get a girocard.

[–] uniquethrowagay@feddit.org 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I feel dumb, what's the difference?

[–] baguettefish@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 43 minutes ago

they're pushing visa and mastercard over germany's own payment system

[–] Teppichbrand@feddit.org 4 points 6 hours ago

I wrote them an email asking about Were and they replied that they'll launch it soon. So let's stay hopeful.

[–] glibg10b@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 hours ago

What do you mean you're unable to install it? That screenshot is not what the package installer looks like.

[–] Outsider9042@lemmy.world 33 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Apps pulling bullshit like this is the biggest challenge for me getting out of the iDroid duopoly

[–] plyth@feddit.org 5 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Which country does it right and has digital infrastructure without Google?

[–] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 42 minutes ago

None, I'm pretty sure. Especially if you include Microsoft and other American companies

And yes, it is a problem. It's something I'm arguing for changing in my country wherever I can

[–] marius@feddit.org 44 points 14 hours ago (3 children)

What is that app used for? Never heard of it

[–] cron@feddit.org 60 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

The play store description says it's an app for multi factor authentication for various EU services. The reviews are pretty desastrous though.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 4 points 2 hours ago

Reviews are openly gamed, and worthless. I suspect that monied interests have paid to give it low scores with their ai firms, actually indians firms.

Because on Anrdoid at least, every app has a near perfect rating, with fake reviews written, and last I checked they didn't even let you start at the worst first. On amazon it's the same except they allow you to go to worst written reviews first as I recall.

It's openly gamed with the assent of these companies, the platform. Like one of my podcast players, leaves a lot to be desired, especially on the search function, and can't find episodes that exist to an incredible extent. They periodically have a pop up where they ask me to review them, Give them 5 stars, a perfect rating, or do it later, there are no other options.

[–] protogen420@lemmy.blahaj.zone 37 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

how hard is it to use standard totp, why do they keep coming up with their own non standaed totp like MFA?

[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 20 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

To get you to use an app that’s locked to the Google Play store, so they can identify you and your devices and who you interact with regularly with certainly.

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

That's what your phone number and email are for; neither of which are explicitly tied to the fascism of big tech.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 43 points 14 hours ago (2 children)
[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 39 points 14 hours ago (3 children)

Damn, I got logged out. I'll now be deported to the US within 5 business days.

[–] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 24 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Then you will be deported back, ending up in a loop

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

There can't be a loop if everyone gets deported to latin America.

[–] vrek@programming.dev 3 points 12 hours ago

No, you're booked on contious flights back and forth and the tax payer just pays for all travel costs and the environmental decay.

But the share holders of the airline get rich so who cares?

[–] vrek@programming.dev 0 points 12 hours ago

No, you're booked on contious flights back and forth and the tax payer just pays for all travel costs and the environmental decay.

But the share holders of the airline get rich so who cares?

[–] chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world 13 points 14 hours ago (1 children)
[–] hector@lemmy.today 1 points 2 hours ago

They have held plenty of white people in detention for no good reason either in fact. People whose politics they don't like, or are in the other categories like trans, and just for no good reason, people that would pay for a ticket out that same day if told to, but instead are held in detention with no way to get a hearing or leave for weeks, months, until the news reports on their stories, at which point they are allowed to buy a ticket to leave.

The system just wastes money for no good reason, these contracts for housing prisoners are a huge source of graft, and they've what, 200 billion in homeland security just for last year, and 60 billion with Ice, and cutting them new checks right now. A lot of that is going to these tent city internment camps, privately owned, people that have donated to the party and it's leaders, and we just know that kickback to the deciders and president in their inflated contracts. One such provider previously got contracts they didn't fulfill, got paid for a couple tent camps they never completed, and got new contracts.

It's al about the money for many of them, it's easier for them to hold minorities without good cause as long as possible but they do hold white people too, and want to abuse them more than they do already.

[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 1 points 12 hours ago

You didn't have Google Play Services installed? That'll teach you. From now on it's Google Play Services all the way.

[–] GandalftheBlack@feddit.org 11 points 13 hours ago

How can I log back in? My account was marked for deletion in 2016 and it was deleted in 2020.

spoilerYes, this is a Brexit joke.

[–] john_t@piefed.ee 1 points 12 hours ago

You can use it to create an ID to login on your Europass CV account and for applying to EU jobs.

[–] lysol@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I take it microg didn't work either

[–] Tehdastehdas@piefed.social 2 points 5 hours ago

Works on my /e/OS 3.4 .

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 16 points 13 hours ago

"Please consi" - No. Not now, not ever.

[–] gtr@programming.dev 12 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

Well dont use the app then. You can access all services on the web. Stay with the open standards that are offered.

[–] Undertaker@feddit.org 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Great answer. Instead of valid critique simply behave.

[–] gtr@programming.dev 2 points 3 hours ago

You have to vote with your feet and use the solutions that satisfy your demands. Complaining is not going to change anything. Boycotting bad stuff is the way.

[–] androidul@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago