Digital Markets Act aims to allow more competition and let consumers delete preloaded phone apps

Haven’t seen any posts about this and it’s a pretty big thing. From DMA website:

Examples of the “do’s”: gatekeepers will for example have to:

  • allow third parties to inter-operate with the gatekeeper’s own services in certain specific situations;
  • provide companies advertising on their platform with the tools and information necessary for advertisers and publishers to carry out their own independent verification of their advertisements hosted by the gatekeeper;
  • allow their business users to promote their offer and conclude contracts with their customers outside the gatekeeper’s platform.

Example of the “don’ts”: gatekeepers will for example no longer:

  • treat services and products offered by the gatekeeper itself more favourably in ranking than similar services or products offered by third parties on the gatekeeper’s platform;
  • prevent users from un-installing any pre-installed software or app if they wish so;
  • track end users outside of the gatekeepers’ core platform service for the purpose of targeted advertising, without effective consent having been granted.

We’ll see how this plays out but this is first move in a very long time that could open up platform like WhatsApp to 3rd party clients and force Google and Apple to open their mobile OSes to other apps. Maybe we’ll see stock Android without play services? One can dream…

P.S. https://digital-markets-act-cases.ec.europa.eu - page about the legislation

  • @gealb
    37•1 year ago

    GDPR is fantastic and a big win for the consumer. It was so successful in fact, that it started to spread and other countries created similar laws.

    • The Hobbyist
      -8•1 year ago

      It’s good, but that cookie banner is just bad… Though it’s not clear to me if it’s bad and not following the regulation or bad and following the regulation. It’s definitely not following the spirit as so many of those cookie banners are deep messes of hierarchical settings which any sane person would not waste time on…

      • @[email protected]
        20•1 year ago

        Legal cookie banners need to make consent as easy as nonconsent.

        So, if “Accept All” is a button, “Deny All” also needs to be a button.
        Also, you cannot refuse service to someone who refuses Cookies, unless they’re necessary to the functioning of the service.

        Without these principles, it wouldn’t be consent. You can’t force someone to give consent.

        You also do not need a Cookie banner, if:

        • you don’t track personal data. (GDPR literally does not apply.)
        • you only track personal data obviously required for the provided service, like a login cookie or a shopping cart cookie. (Implied Consent)