digital identity (reading passports and national ID cards as a way to authenticate)
government services (which need the above authentication)
public transport cards
In short, everything that makes a smartphone necessary in the daily life of a EU resident.
For simple phone calls and text messages, one does not need a smartphone, an HMD feature phone or a Commodore Callback are enough; yet a smartphone is necessary in adult life.
SFOS cannot reach large success for as long as users have to purchase and carry two phones, and pay for a second monthly data plan (most of these special apps refuse to set up on wifi). We read Jolla CEO says Jolla hopes to sell many more phones next year, this wonāt happen unless the phone can be used as single phone. This requires Jolla to select some of these banking / government applications and solve all the issues: NFC, fingerprint reader, Android PIN.
I am an EU Citzen. I donāt need anything of this. Not for my job, not on vacation and the least place where I wanted all this is on that accumulation of sensors and personal information that is my phone.
What I need is a phone that respects my privacy.
If I wanted a device that collects all my data in one single place I would have baught an iphone or Droid.
That is a funny statement, because you could easily buy a Nokia 3310 and think you are completely secure and untrackedā¦ but even that is not true. A mobile device can still reveal information through network connections and location triangulation.
Real information security depends on how the device manufacturer and the operating system are designed, what data they collect, how transparent they are, and what control the user has. If a government required a manufacturer to implement a tracking mechanism, a Sailfish device would not magically become immune.
No commercial mobile platform can completely ignore legal requirements in the country where it operates. The real difference is not that one platform is absolutely private and another is not. The difference is the software ecosystem, business model, transparency, and jurisdiction. Google and Apple operate under their own legal environments and business models. Jolla is not free from all legal obligations either, but it is a European company operating under European law, with a different approach focused more on user control and privacy.
For me, the important question is not whether a phone collects zero data ā that is practically impossible today ā but who controls the data, why it is collected, and whether the user has meaningful choices. However, privacy alone is not enough for commercial success. A modern smartphone must also provide practical compatibility with everyday services. This is why improving AppSupport is so important. Features like reliable NFC support in AppSupport would be a major step forward, especially in Europe, where banking authentication, digital identity, public transport, access systems and security keys increasingly depend on NFC.
The goal could be not to copy Android or iOS, but to provide users with a real alternative: a privacy-respecting European platform that still allows people to live normally in a modern digital society. Allowing Android apps to function through AppSupport is a great advantage because it gives users compatibility when they need it, without forcing them to abandon the Sailfish ecosystem. At the same time, users still have control ā AppSupport processes can be switched off with a simple tap of a button when they are not needed.
The whole point is that if you do not want your data to be collected through Android apps, you can simply uninstall AppSupport. Other users may choose to trust certain Android apps and need that compatibility. For that reason, the corresponding functions should be properly supported in AppSupport. Your concern about untrusted companies and apps collecting data is already addressed by the userās choice: those who do not want this can disable or remove AppSupport, while others can use it when they need Android compatibility.
Yes I agree with that statement and I believe Jolla has since its first launch brought the app ecosystem to a reasonably good place through Android support rather than spending time and money on local developers
Jolla isnāt spending money paying app developers - and neither should it. Where do you get that from?
(Yes yes, hosting CHUM is technically almost that, but everyone understands what i mean).
What I mean is if we did not have app support you would have had to pay for the services of necessary apps like YouTube and Instagram and since this was not paid for in the Windows Phone days they used MetroTube that is why it is a good thing that app support exists
I think you need to calibrate your necess-o-meter.
YouTube works just fine in the browser, and i couldnāt care less about Instagram (and i do believe iām in the majority there).
Yes, Jolla would not pay, so Android support is a good thing.
This is not an āI will die without itā thing for me personally, but I think it is important for the local market. Our friend @valgavchanin mentioned this when talking about the ecosystem.
Ok, ok, I understand that for you there is no point. Could you please elaborate what you consider to be āstupid appsā and why? It would be interesting to understand your point of view.
The German and the French government apps need NFC to recognize the ID card. The public transport systems in several European cities (my case: Lisbon) uses NFC to replace the paper cards. Most people will not put these use cases into āstupid appsā, but into ānecessary in daily lifeā.
Depending where you live, you can do without NFC the same way people can do without a car, or without a payment card (like my uncle who always refused to have a card, only withdrawing cash at the bank). Itās your choice, but that does not make āa carā or āa payment cardā less necessary, in general, for most people.
I need my German ID on a computer once a year, maybe. If ever. I would never ever use my phone. I own a privacy friendly car, bicycle and motorbike which all work fine without NFC and my Deutschlandcard for public transport is a plastic card. My boarding pass code or train tickets are PDFs.
I do no banking in the absence of a decent computer and although I am old I can still carry two cards and cash for payment.
And I do not even need GPS when not navigating, WiFi when not willing to connect and I buy things without installing āThe Appā.
public transport. although in the US, these systems vary widely by region
When I setup revolut on my pixel, it asked me to scan my passport via nfc for identity verification. Something that is very uncommon that I have to do, but I did have to do it
that is why it is a good thing that app support exists